Writers in the Storm

by John Peragine

I recently spoke on a virtual panel for the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference on why people should consider self-publishing, and why now may be one of the best times to consider doing it. I have broken down the six thoughts to consider into the acronym "WRITER."

Why Self Publish

We are in a new world of publishing. The old ways of publishing are no longer valid. Even before Covid-19, the world of traditional publishing was in trouble. Some of the big publishing houses are being bought out for their lack of relevance and performance. They often focus on their famous money-making authors and leave the first time authors to fend for themselves. Big advances are almost the thing of legends and myths.

Covid-19 only made matters worse. We have large book chains like Barnes and Noble against the ropes, and the smaller bookstores are closing. The big “A” while necessary, is considered a monopoly, and within the next few years, the way people buy, interact, and read books will change even more.

The great news is that self-publishing has become the standard for many authors, even those who had been successful in the past by using traditional publishing houses. Self-publishing is accessible to anyone and is becoming more accepted among readers and critics.

Research Your Options

There are many different types of publishing that range from traditional to Fully-Vested self-published. Some authors need help with the production aspects - cover, editing, interior design, and distribution. You don’t have to go it alone.

1. Fully-Vested Self-Publishing: This type of publishing requires the author to do all of the items necessary to publish a book. Because they fulfill all the roles and therefore maximize their returns. This type of publishing can be tricky for those unfamiliar with book production or lack specific graphic design skills.
2. Assisted Publishing: The author uses freelance editors and designers or works through a service like 99designs.com to help them with different production and publishing tasks.
3. Hybrid Publishing: This is a crossover between self-publishing and traditional publishing. There are all sorts of models and companies out there. Authors should be wary of “vanity presses,” as they often say they are a Traditional or Hybrid Press. They usually require you to buy your books, and most everything is pay to play. These sorts of publishing houses make their money on the services you pay for, and take a big chunk of your royalties as well. They often lack any backend services, such as a proven marketing and PR plan. Some of the less reputable companies promise “best seller” status, but what they mean is a bump on Amazon for two hours in a subcategory. Do your research!
4. Coop Publishing: L’Oste Vineyard Press (my company) is this type of publisher. We invest our own money into a project alongside the author. The focus is the backend: a healthy marketing plan to recoup the investment and to share in a tidy profit. Instead of charging the author money for services on the front end as a markup, the publisher pays for a percentage of the cost to produce the book. In a coop-publishing deal, the publisher does not make any profit on the upfront costs.

Interview Your Team

It is essential to hire the right freelancers or services company to help you with your book. There is not only a monetary investment, but there is also your reputation as an author to consider. Do your due diligence and treat people's hiring to do your covers and editing like you would any other job hiring situation. Ask for a resume and recommendations. Ask questions, and then some more questions. If they don’t want to answer, can’t answer, or you discover that their information is incorrect, then you may want to consider hiring someone else.

Negotiate your terms, and ALWAYS have them sign a contract. It doesn’t matter what they promise; it only matters what is written and signed.

Take Control

People are often relieved when they complete their drafts. Whew- they are done. I always say the real work hasn’t started yet. When you self-publish, you become the CEO of your company called your book. Not only are you the CEO, but you are in charge of every aspect, from font choice to wholesale discounts. Because you are in control, you are the one responsible for your book's success. Your name is on the cover, and so whether it succeeds or fails, you are responsible. That is why it is essential to hire the right people to help give your book the best shot possible.

The good news is- you decide the title, the cover, the release date, and everything related to your book. And you keep the full amount of the net royalties rather than the average 5-15% offered by traditional publishing houses.

Establish Your Brand

I tell my clients all the time: you are selling YOU, the author rather than your book. It is crucial to create a brand that is consistent, visible, and engaging. This includes your color schemes, your bio, your headshot, your website, and more. You want to create a brand that will sell any future book that you write.

Establishing and growing a brand takes work and sometimes money to accomplish. This process begins at the moment that you decide to write your book. Begin with your social media channels and your webpage. Let people know who you are, what you write, and get them excited about what you are working on. Building a fanbase begins months before a book is released.

Brand development is the one area, with a few exceptions, that traditional publishers do not spend much time or money on. They are relying on you to come up with your marketing plan. So if you are going to be the one to promote your work and connect with readers, it is making less sense for many authors to allow a traditional publisher to keep the lion’s share of the royalties.

Rinse, Repeat, and Revenue

All of what I have mentioned takes time, planning, assistance, and a budget. You get to decide each of those things.

Remember:

• Series and multiple book authors do better than many one-book authors.
• Consider taking some of the profits you make off one book to begin investing in the next one.
• The more books that you self-publish, the more confident and cost-effective you become.
• You will figure out what works and what doesn’t. Give yourself time. Never rush the launching of a book.
• The best results occur when you allow 4-6 months from the time you finish your draft to launch.

Don’t listen to everyone who gives you their “expert” advice. Seek out the experts, and then decide what works best for you. Remember, you are in charge and responsible for your book.

What have your self-publishing experiences been like? What are your fears about self-publishing? Failures? Successes? Please share them with us down in the comments!

About John

John Peragine has published 14 books and ghostwritten more than 100 others. He is a contributor for HuffPost, Reuters, and The Today Show. He covered the John Edwards trial exclusively for Bloomberg News and The New York Times. He has written for Wine Enthusiast, Grapevine Magazine, Realtor.com, WineMaker magazine, and Writer's Digest.

John began writing professionally in 2007, after working 13 years in social work and as the piccolo player for the Western Piedmont Symphony for over 25 years. Peragine is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. His newest book, Max and the Spice Thieves, will be released Spring 2021. https://www.facebook.com/twilightdjinn/

As we have all seen, the coronavirus has changed the rules for almost everything. Change is hard for almost everyone, and I know dozens of people who are reeling from the onslaught of unexpected challenges 2020 has brought. But for many, this year of change has opened doors to areas they might not have ever explored. New careers, new writing schedules, and new NaNoWriMo participants are popping up everywhere!

For those who don't know what I'm talking about...

What is NaNoWriMo?

This is for those who are new, those who haven't looked in a while, or for those who are looking for writing friends. Below is a quick primer on NaNoWriMo:

1. That funny word stands for National Novel Writing Month.
2. The website is www.nanowrimo.org
3. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (November).
   (This averages out to 1,667 words per day.)
   (You don't HAVE to write all 50K. I usually do 20-30K.)
4. If November doesn't work, there is Camp NaNo in April and July.
5. NaNoWriMo is a website AND a community, with regional groups and activities.
6. Participants are addressed as Wrimos.
7. It is a fantastic place to find new writing friends who live near you.
8. There are Pep Talks by well-established writers.
9. There is a Young Writers Program (YWP) for kids.
10. Their NaNo Prep page contains a Master Class for writers.

I'm not kidding on that last point. Here are some examples from the NaNo Prep page:

The NaNo challenge is my birthday present to myself each year. Every year, I love it. And every year, I hate it. I rarely have time for the full 50K -- there's simply too much to do in the tiny little month of November -- but I always have a grand time.

I love the community, the late-night writing sprints, the before and after parties my local team throws. I love the write-ins, the pep talks, and the excitement of uploading my word count. I adore getting the chance to encourage my peeps and watch everyone chase their goals.

I tend to arrive at December 1st super invigorated and a little bit out of breath.

How has the COVID pandemic changed NaNoWriMo?

People are more tired than usual.

Writers are almost always stretched to the limit. Between family responsibilities and the day job, it's hard to squeeze that writing in. But you add in a pandemic that stretches on for months? US elections? Hurricanes? Homeschooling? Eddie Van Halen passing away this week?!! Fuggedaboutit.

People are "up to here" with this 2020 business.

I say f#@% it. Let's go play on the pages with our pals. NaNoWriMo gives you a chance to put yourself and your writing first for once, and encourage other writers to do the same.

Note: Last year there were more 455,000+ writers from all over the world participating in the challenge. (That's a lot of encouraging.)

Many people are still locked down.

In the big COVID states like California, where NaNoWriMo is headquartered, many people are still mostly staying home. Gatherings for any except immediate family are prohibited in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. The NaNo team has already asked for "no in-person write-ins."

But when has something like that ever stopped us enterprising writers? Each region has set up a group meeting area via a service called Discord, which went into use last year. I expect there will also be some Zoom and Google Meet write-ins.

As the mother of a school-aged child, I am insanely excited about this. Finally, I don't have to go anywhere to meet up! I don't have to wedge it in, or schedule childcare. In my opinion, this is the best thing to happen to NaNo since chocolate chip cookies.

I'll be able to tell you on the back end if the virtual write-ins equal more words on the page.

NaNo opened up the regions and made forums easier.

I don't know if the world being locked down motivated the NaNo team to open things up, but you are much less constrained this year.

Message from the NaNo team:

We’ve reorganized how the forum works. Most forums are muted by default. You can view ALL muted forums by scrolling to the bottom of the main forum page and clicking the + button by the Muted Categories section. There are two ways to unmute them! The first is to manually visit each forum you’re interested in, click the notification bell in the upper right corner, and choose your preferred notification settings. The easiest way is to go to your preferences and set the forums you want at the notification settings you prefer. “Regular” will unmute a forum without adding special alerts.

The NaNo team has also added private affinity groups for those who wish to join them. Their statement: "Joining these groups will grant access to special forums for BIPOC, people with chronic illness, neurodivergence and disabilities, 18+, teens, and LGBTQIA." Link to announcement thread.

Basically, in my "Regular" area (mentioned above), I chose the genres I cared about and THREE regions where I have friends I want to write with. This is a marvelous way to either meet new people, or write with both your team "back home" and your local team if you have moved.

What hasn't changed?

Well, I still want you to come buddy up with me at "jennyhansen" on the NaNo site! And you still need to get ready for the challenge - clear the decks, bribe your family, make some extra meals.

Here are some earlier posts about NaNo prep.

• 10 Tips to Rock NaNoWriMo
• A Tale of Two NaNoWriMos
• Why I Still Participate in NaNoWriMo (After 8 Years and a Book Contract)

And my most important bit of advice?

Run your own race.
Set your own goals.
Write your own story.

This writing life is a marathon, not a sprint. The moment you forget the joy of your writing is the day it becomes drudgery.

"Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion."

- Simon Sinek

One last note...the sponsor offers are amazing this year! A free upload from IngramSpark, a KDP how-to class, major deals off writing software. I love that they expanded this section for 2020.

Do you participate in writing challenges? Do you do NaNoWriMo? What do you do in advance of a writing immersion to get ready? Share with us down in the comments!

About Jenny

By day, Jenny provides corporate communications and LinkedIn advice for professional services firms. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 18 years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Facebook at JennyHansenAuthor or at Writers In The Storm.

by Karen Debonis

Last fall, after twenty years of effort, I finished my memoir. In recent years, that manuscript went through two rounds of beta reading, the scrutiny of a paid book editor, and another eleventy-nine revisions.

What began as a story about my young son’s life-or-death struggle with a brain tumor became an examination of how my people-pleasing had kept me from being the fierce mama-bear my son needed. The long road to “The End” of this book has been a battle between ego and humility.

Let me explain.

In the beginning…

Like every author, I wrote the manuscript to the best of my ability, which I thought was pretty darn good. The words “runaway best-seller” may even have skipped around in my head. I moved on to querying without so much as a peek at my manuscript, except to cut and paste pages into emails according to agents’ guidelines. I received a trickle of form-letter rejections and a flood of non-replies.

I still believed my writing was as good as I could make it, but those runaway best-sellerthoughts disappeared. Earlier this year I joined a memoir critique group. I decided not to submit chapters of my manuscript since it was “finished.” Instead, I submitted some creative nonfiction essays that had languished in submissions limbo. The groups’ comments gave me insight into why publication had eluded me. I heard the message loud and clear: My writing just wasn’t that good (my words, not theirs).

In other words, I wasn’t ready yet. I’d queried too soon.

In his book Your First Page: first pages and what they tell us about the pages that follow them, Peter Selgin writes: “Telling an author, ‘Check your ego at the door,’ is easy. Doing so— for the author—isn’t.”

Disheartened didn’t begin to describe my feelings. I began to doubt my ability to write at all.If I can’t even produce a decent essay, I thought, how could I possibly have written a decent book? Perhaps essay and book skills are different.

Still, something felt backward. Wasn’t my craft supposed to improve with time and practice?

Note: I had improved. But I couldn’t see it yet.

The Next Phase

My memoir beckoned me, but I resisted, fearful of what I’d find. Flannery O’Connor said, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

So I swallowed my ego with a Tums and re-read Chapter One for the first time in months.

The prose was humbling in its mediocrity.

I’m not fishing for compliments or wallowing in self-doubt. I’m stating a fact.

• I relied on telling instead of showing.
• I gave unimportant details, and far too many of them.
• I didn’t vary sentence length and structure.
• It was boring.

My writer’s soul shook with horror that I had sent these pages to agents. I hoped my query letter had been so bad, they hit “Delete” before reading the manuscript. The next day I moped around the house, vowing to drop the project altogether.

My Epiphany

The fact that I was no longer satisfied with my previous writing was evidence of growth. Stepping away from a piece for a few days/weeks/months might give you a new perspective when you return, but the odds will increase if you’ve sharpened your skills in the meantime.

I did step away in the middle of my twenty-year memoir journey, worn down by the challenges of parenting a brain-injured child. With no time or energy to write about what I was living through, I stashed my box of memorabilia and the ancient computer holding my files in a corner of the attic. Years later, when my son was grown and recovered enough to be independent, I downloaded my old files and got back to work. Unsurprisingly, my writing had not improved. How could it when I hadn’t written?

My recent experience was completely different. Stepping away, then returning to my manuscript after vigorously practicing my craft gave me the clear perspective and tools to fix it. This time, my previous mistakes jumped out at me. I knew what to fix and how to go about it. The clear path forward energized me to tackle another round of revisions.

The Real Road to Publication.

With a deep breath and three Hail Mary’s, I submitted Chapter One for critique. I harbored fantasies of my critique partners saying, “It was perfect—I have no suggestions!” But humility slapped me back to reality with the groups’ tough and fair comments.

Back to the writing board I went.

(Are you seeing the pattern here?)

Ego feels great for the short term, but it can keep us stuck. Humility hurts, but it often leads to growth.

As writers, we strive to capture an element of the human experience and present a particular perspective on it. Humility is essential for that. Opening ourselves to understanding others’ unique take on the world, accepting that we are less than perfect (i.e., fully human), broadens our ability to convey the true depth of humanity.

Applying my critique group’s feedback with my improved skillset turned Chapter One into something I could be proud of today. If I have to repeat the process in six months, I’ll remind myself again that this process is worth it.

What I’ve Learned

Takeaways from my recent roller-coaster of ego, humility, and self-discovery:

1. At any point in time, your writing is as good as you can make it at that time. Be proud that you’ve done your best, but be prepared to view it less favorably in the future, because you will have grown. Let your discovery encourage, not discourage you.
2. Times heals no wounds and improves no skills unless you actively work at it. If you take a writing break for more than the length of a vacation, commit to working on other aspects of your profession or hobby: read, study, take classes, sign up for webinars. Further your craft, even if you aren’t creating new manuscripts.
3. Even if you believe your earlier writing sucked, study that growth. Ask yourself if it was better than it was the year before. In other words, turn your focus from where you’ve been to celebrate how far you’ve come. Believe that trend will continue.
4. Humility is the best teacher. Imperfection leaves room for growth. Embrace them both.

Final thought

I’m up to Chapter Four with my critique group. The original weighed in at a whopping 8000 words, but by the time I submitted it I’d trimmed it to under 4000. The critiques were fewer this time, the compliments kinder.

I had improved. So far, I’m counting it as a runaway success.

Have you had a similar experience? Do you ever go back to your previous work and celebrate your writing growth? What aspect of your Craft has improved the most? Please share your stories with us down in the comments!

About Karen

Karen began writing twenty years ago after her eleven-year-old son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Those early pages are now a real-life medical mystery about a mother who must overcome her toxic agreeability if she's to save herself and her son. The manuscript is currently in submission for publication.

A happy empty-nester with her husband of thirty-seven years, Karen lives and writes in upstate New York. You can find out more about her journey at www.KarenDeBonis.com.