icey502's Publishing Thread

[icey502]

Hi All,

I decided to start a progress thread instead of polluting the others with some of my selfish questions. Dumb card: sorry if I am doing this wrong, it is my first thread on this forum.

Short synopsis: My real name is Cory and I am an engineer in the software business, which I hope does not completely preclude writing skill. For 2015, I decided to stop reading about doing things, and instead, start doing things. So, my first exercise has been oriented towards a short book, targeting Amazon kindle, as inspired by @ChickenHawk's thread.

I have a slow-lane day job that I actually enjoy, so I have been working on this flat-out in the off hours. I have the bulk of the content (roughly 25 pages) done, the topic is self-help in a specific niche for engineers. I have been using OpenOffice on a Macbook pro, but I am finding OpenOffice to be not well-suited to this task and I am going to find something else.

My main priorities in this endeavor are:

1. help as many other software people as I can (the topic of the book),
2. understand the publishing process and what it takes (because my next goal is way more lofty!), and
3. making money is a nice bonus but secondary.

At this point, I have had some colleagues review the material to generally positive comments, and I am contemplating the next step. I started reading about the overall sequence of events here: http://michaelhyatt.com/kindle-publishing-success.html .....but I am wondering about some specifics...

1) I am assuming that I probably do not want to tie my personal amazon account, to an amazon account I would use to publish something. Since I was planning on using a pen name for this content, I am assuming I should have separation here. Maybe some of the more experienced folks have some thoughts on this one.

2) I have seen forum discussion around getting cover content (e.g. fiverr or 99designs), and then at the other end of the scale, handing off the entire content to a company, to doctor it up professionally. I'm wondering if anybody has pros/cons on this.

3) Maybe this is a stupid concern, but in software, we usually like to test things before going "into production". In the kindle world, the analogy appears to be the Kindle Previewer: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000765261, although probably if I have a third party do this work, they would follow a process that includes this?

4) If the content ends up getting some legs, I could see some demand for a online forum to support it, or some degree of further books to follow up on related areas. It seems like I should be putting some contact info, email address, etc, in the book, similarly to other technical topics in the software domain. But that sort of defeats the use of the pen name from point #1 I think. Maybe I am over-thinking the problem.

5) I have no idea how to price this thing. Somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99 I imagine. But I guess I don't need to solve that one at this moment.

Anyway, that's it for now....any insight or criticism always welcome.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

1) I am assuming that I probably do not want to tie my personal amazon account, to an amazon account I would use to publish something. Since I was planning on using a pen name for this content, I am assuming I should have separation here. Maybe some of the more experienced folks have some thoughts on this one.

I used my pre-existing Amazon account and actually like this setup. Happily, this is completely unrelated to your pen name. When you publish your book, you will simply fill in a field of "author name" or something like that. In this field, and on your book cover, you can put whatever name you like. I have two pen names. Neither of these are my real name, but both are tied to my real-life Amazon account.

2) I have seen forum discussion around getting cover content (e.g. fiverr or 99designs), and then at the other end of the scale, handing off the entire content to a company, to doctor it up professionally. I'm wondering if anybody has pros/cons on this.

I do my own covers, so I probably don't have a lot to say about this, other than to say I've been fairly happy with the results.

3) Maybe this is a stupid concern, but in software, we usually like to test things before going "into production". In the kindle world, the analogy appears to be the Kindle Previewer:

I use the Kindle Previewer and find it works fine. It works best IMO when you leaf through the (on-screen) book several times using different settings. For example, "page" through it once using the "Kindle Fire" setting, then using the "IPad" setting, etc. In my experience, this has helped me catch any formatting problems up front.

4) If the content ends up getting some legs, I could see some demand for a online forum to support it, or some degree of further books to follow up on related areas. It seems like I should be putting some contact info, email address, etc, in the book, similarly to other technical topics in the software domain. But that sort of defeats the use of the pen name from point #1 I think. Maybe I am over-thinking the problem.

It sounds like you're not quite sure where this will go, which makes total sense. Until you get feedback on the book and/or see what kind of results you get, it's hard to know what you'll end up doing. To allow for a variety of outcomes, I'd suggest simply setting up a mailing list subscription offer. This way, you can capture the email addresses of your potential fans and leave yourself open to whatever route you take. For example, if you set up a forum later, you'll have a way to let people know it's out there.

5) I have no idea how to price this thing. Somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99 I imagine. But I guess I don't need to solve that one at this moment.

I'd suggest looking at similar books by self-pubbed authors and see what they're priced at. If you don't yet have an audience or platform, it might be a good idea to price it closer to $2.99 than to $9.99. If your real goal is to build an audience rather than to make money, it seems that you'd want more eyeballs, even if it's at the expense of royalty per sale.

Hope this helps!

 

[Charnell]

I do my own covers, so I probably don't have a lot to say about this, other than to say I've been fairly happy with the results.
...
I'd suggest looking at similar books by self-pubbed authors and see what they're

To add to this, if you think you have any ounce of design skills and decide to make your own cover, check out what similar authors have used for covers. That will give you a strong idea as to what covers to use, stock photos if applicable, layout, etc.

Some covers are as simple as a stock image and the right font for the title to make it look good.

 

[icey502]

Thanks for the help, I am just sorting out the next steps now.

Just realized that there were two significant book releases in a similar niche since December 2014. Either the timing is way right, or this will crash and burn more quickly than I thought

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[icey502]

Ok, after another evening of researching the domain....anybody have any experience with BookBaby? They are having some specials right now. It looks to be a bit of a free lunch, so I am wondering if there is a catch that I don't know about. http://www.bookbaby.com/ebook-services

Also I looked at some other authoring tools, there is still not much that seems better than simply using Word. Scrivener seems interesting, but it has a bit of a learning curve. Jury is still out on that one, at least right now.

 

[icey502]

Update - after reading some negative reviews of bookbaby, I decided to steer clear of them at least for now. After another long night, I am able to tune in decently non-ugly ebook text using Scrivener. Once I understood the metadata used by the compile step, it seems easy enough to control the presentation. Right now I am previewing it using the Mac iBook reader, as I am not thinking about device types and so forth yet.

As a software guy, I expected the tooling to be a bit more advanced

 

[icey502]

Unanticipated bonus question, I wonder if anyone has run into this....

All my activity around this topic has motivated my wife into exercising her writing chops. She is pondering a short book about how she has dealt with Meniere's disease. Anything she puts down would be wrapped with a disclaimer about it not being medical advice, and to see a doctor, etc, etc....but is that strong enough? Any advice welcome.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[icey502]

Update on this topic, I received a third round of feedback on my original content, and have now wrangled all the stuff into Scrivener. More futzing around with the layout, which I suck at, but I suck at it a bit less than yesterday. I am reconsidering the pen-name bit, I think for a semi-technical topic, it is probably not a great idea. Probably going to have a cover done by BeautEBooks, after seeing their work elsewhere. If left to my own devices, I would have stick figures on the cover.

 

[icey502]

Another night, another set of re-structuring some of the content so that the flow is more direct and to the point. In discussions with a cover artist now, the result will hopefully be a positive one. Exported from Scrivener to epub and mobi forms in order to see the output, it seems to look pretty good, for an amateur

 

[icey502]

Update....getting close to a finished cover, I ended up working with Brandi from http://www.ebook-coverdesigns.com/. She has been very responsive so far, and I am liking the direction. Other than that, I am reading everything I can related to ebook PR, marketing, etc. Things that I knew nothing about prior to this science experiment. Still trying to figure out the pre-launch vs launch vs post-launch without getting too crazy about it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[icey502]

I started doing some homework about the PR angle of ebooks, and ran across this site: http://www.pieceofcakepr.com/how-it-works/

Sounds again free-lunch-ish, but after discussing the topic with another PR company, it seems that ebooks in the technical domain are not as interesting as novels and so forth, from a PR standpoint - which I could certainly understand. Not sure it would have any real value beyond exposure via Smashwords, at least in my case.

It seems like there are about a million sources for "5 things to do" or "35 things to do" before publishing an ebook, all with varying degrees of interesting points to make. I'm making my own list of what seems reasonable/achievable. Definitely a learning experience.

 

[icey502]

The book cover is done, at least for the kindle edition. I am planning to get another round of feedback on it, and then get the final "launch" preparations underway. I previewed the content following @ChickenHawk's advice....so far it seems like there should be no surprises (famous last words). My next steps are more or less mechanical, like making sure I have a sensible online portal and a quick/dirty signup form. So far I have been playing with Weebly, just to avoid writing it by hand - but Weebly is pretty limited.

One of my challenges has been - when to draw the line and call it "done". Possibly this is due to the fact that the topic is close to my heart. Even though it is my first foray into this area, I don't want it to suck.

 

[icey502]

After another couple weeks of reviewing, edits, some deeper content, final edits being made. I have a new appreciation for how hard the craft of writing actually is, at least, as much as I actually know about the craft anyway.

I have been studying the marketing side from a variety of angles, enough to realize that it is a much bigger area than I thought. I stood up a one-pager signup form with an inexpensive hosting company, using MailCheat(Chimp) for the signup grunt work. For now I am standing up a one-page facebook landing page in addition to that. Once I get over the actual "hit the publish button" part, I plan to tie it together, only because there is no real product to point to until then.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[icey502]

Deep breath.....after two straight months of late nights, writing, editing, talking to reviewers, over-analysis, obsessing, and so forth....I finally hit the publish button on Amazon. I set the initial price at $3.99, completely arbitrarily.

Screen shot of my Amazon "bookshelf":

I'll post the link when it goes live, if anyone wants to critique my promotional text.

It's a bit strange, it feels like the first time I played an instrument on stage. You practice, practice, practice, you tell yourself that you are ready....but taking it to an actual audience is still completely scary. I assume this is probably normal and expected

Once again I am grateful to this forum and to @ChickenHawk (also @Charnell, thanks for the cover advice). The experiences posted by others have been my main source of inspiration in stepping out of the comfort zone. Cheers to you all.

 

[Red]

Awesome, way to make things happen.

1) I am assuming that I probably do not want to tie my personal amazon account, to an amazon account I would use to publish something. Since I was planning on using a pen name for this content, I am assuming I should have separation here. Maybe some of the more experienced folks have some thoughts on this one.

For what it's worth, I used a separate account, simply because I have reviewed some friends products after purchasing & didn't want the ties (probably giving amazon algorithms too much cred, but whatever).

5) I have no idea how to price this thing. Somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99 I imagine. But I guess I don't need to solve that one at this moment.

I had the same problem! I've found that the book sells better at $9.86 than it did at $5.96 (no idea why, aside perceived value).

after reading some negative reviews of bookbaby, I decided to steer clear of them at least for now.

Yep. Run away. I've been very dissatisfied with the process. I self-published on Amazon & went to them for the "rest" & it's been a pain in the a$$. So much so that, I basically am ready to cancel & get a refund, then do it myself. Ugh. The one thing I will give them: they answer the phone.

The book cover is done, at least for the kindle edition. I

Can you post a little bit bigger pic of the cover? Would love to see it!


Thanks for posting your updates. Keep 'em coming. ....because, honestly, it reminds me that I need to update my thread... LOL.

 

[icey502]

Thanks for the reply. If you want to see a bigger version of the cover, I put a copy on my (admittedly humble) signup page: http://softwareplusplus.com/.

I'm winging it a bit there, I haven't worked out all the downstream activity that is still coming.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Red]

Thanks! And for those of you that are curious:

Looks nice!

 

[icey502]

Thanks @Red. Brandi did a nice job on the title, and was very patient with the amount of back and forth that it took to get the cover to that point.

Looks like it just went live: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U4ZRQC6/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Next stop is....some reviews, something called marketing(!)....and so forth. I am pondering a smashwords channel, but as a secondary effort.

Roughly speaking, my next steps are:

• have some close colleagues buy and review
• point my linkedin contacts to it
• work on the facebook page I stood up for it: https://www.facebook.com/softwareplusplus (which is currently rather empty)

Any advice welcome on any of these points. I'll try to keep a log of whatever activity seems significant at the time.

 

[icey502]

It just struck me: "holy cow, I am an author!"

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Red]

It just struck me: "holy cow, I am an author!"

Yeah, seeing my book downloaded on my tablet (opening up the cover page, specifically) is when it really sank in. Good feeling.

 

[icey502]

What genre are you in @Red? I'm trying to study up on how the more successful folks are doing this....

 

[Lex DeVille]

Congratulations on getting it published!

<h2> Combat Secrets of a Software Engineer Revealed</h2>
<strong><i>Master Yourself Before Yourself Masters You</i></strong>

You can add html like this as a headline for your description.
The code above makes your top text orange and the sub-header dark & italic.

The rest of the description is okay, but it would be better with intent focus on how it helps your reader. Get really specific.

For instance:

Instead of:

"improve your skills in handling day to day activities"

Tell them specifically what they'll be able to do.

"Handle chaos like a Zen Master on Xanax"

You're a writer now. Paint pictures with your words. Connect with your reader.

P.S. Here's a secret writing tip that I've been holding for a while.

Inspirational romance has been my biggest, longest seller for a long time. (Gotta use the keyword: Inspirational) Especially Christian Inspirational Romance.

Good luck!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Red]

What genre are you in @Red? I'm trying to study up on how the more successful folks are doing this....

I'm not sure if I'm in the "more successful" category yet, LOL -got quite a ways to go before that. I'm in non-fiction & in real estate, book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LKVIJM4/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

I'm trying to finish up with BookBaby (*sigh) & then I have to do some work on my site before I jump into paid traffic, but that's the next step for me. Sales are trickling through, so I think that's a good sign since I'm doing zero promotions... but yeah, long way to go over here still. But I'm on my way.

 

[icey502]

I'm not sure if I'm in the "more successful" category yet, LOL -got quite a ways to go before that. I'm in non-fiction & in real estate, book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LKVIJM4/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

I'm trying to finish up with BookBaby (*sigh) & then I have to do some work on my site before I jump into paid traffic, but that's the next step for me. Sales are trickling through, so I think that's a good sign since I'm doing zero promotions... but yeah, long way to go over here still. But I'm on my way.

Now *that* is a great cover!

 

[icey502]

Congratulations on getting it published!

<h2> Combat Secrets of a Software Engineer Revealed</h2>
<strong><i>Master Yourself Before Yourself Masters You</i></strong>

You can add html like this as a headline for your description.
The code above makes your top text orange and the sub-header dark & italic.

The rest of the description is okay, but it would be better with intent focus on how it helps your reader. Get really specific.

For instance:

Instead of:

"improve your skills in handling day to day activities"

Tell them specifically what they'll be able to do.

"Handle chaos like a Zen Master on Xanax"

You're a writer now. Paint pictures with your words. Connect with your reader.

P.S. Here's a secret writing tip that I've been holding for a while.

Inspirational romance has been my biggest, longest seller for a long time. (Gotta use the keyword: Inspirational) Especially Christian Inspirational Romance.

Good luck!

That.Was.Awesome. Thanks for the advice. It's a bit of a mindset shift for me, I really appreciate it.

Honestly, in that meager little "description" field on the KDP portal, I didn't even realize they would support HTML. It's a bit odd that even a small change to meta-data (without changes to the book content itself) seems to initiate the entire 12-hour publish cycle again.

I'll work on this part

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[icey502]

@SinisterLex, I gave it another go on a more spirited description after your advice above...at least, what I was comfortable with for now.

My spacing is pretty fubar, I am using returns in that silly text field, rather than HTML breaks, so I will have to give it another try tomorrow....but in terms of the text itself, it seems a lot stronger, definitely more engaging. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U4ZRQC6/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Thanks again, that was a good lesson!

 

[icey502]

Tonight is another round of nearly-guesswork on that description field for better spacing. Also studying various marketing methods for e-books, particularly around facebook and linkedin. Going dark for a while to get some initial trial runs started.

 

[icey502]

Update, I seem to have sold a few copies based on word of mouth, one tweet, and one update to my linkedin profile. I was not under any illusions about selling a large number initially anyway, so this is a nice bonus (alas, nowhere near the cost of the work, of course)....



I wonder, if my objective is to help a hundred thousand software engineers with this advice, how would I reach them? Hmmmmm.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[loop101]

Update, I seem to have sold a few copies based on word of mouth, one tweet, and one update to my linkedin profile. I was not under any illusions about selling a large number initially anyway, so this is a nice bonus (alas, nowhere near the cost of the work, of course)....

View attachment 9216

I wonder, if my objective is to help a hundred thousand software engineers with this advice, how would I reach them? Hmmmmm.

Maybe you could send free promo codes to career counselors so they could recommend their clients buy it. Or something like that. Influence the "influencers".

 

[icey502]

I like the idea. I was thinking about reaching out to tech recruiters that place junior to mid level people. Either way, your point is salient, I will put that on my list. Not entirely sure how to use a promotional code with Amazon, but it seems that periodic "free" promotions might be effective, e.g. around graduation time etc. Thanks for the input!