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Anne Skyvington

The Art of Creative Writing

  • Writing
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Publishing

Publishing

Storybox

What is Storybox?

“STORYBOX is a clean energy digital cube, designed for inclusive media and storytelling in public spaces. Partnering with different organisations to activate public spaces, and to connect audiences with stories, insights and creative talent worth sharing.”

​My poem that was published on the Storybox site recently was inspired by my late brother, Donny, who was a bit of a ‘live wire’.

​KEY FEATURES OF STORYBOX

Its key features are a 2 metre squared digital cube; high resolution LED panels for outdoor viewing; solar roof panels; secure and vandal resistant; graffiti resistant; speakers for event based audio;

https://www.storybox.co/about

Pictures courtesy of STORYBOX

STORYBOX Sydney_.jpg

CURATION AND LICENSING

Storybox is passionate about local storytelling and creative placemaking. 

They connect with community and creative leaders to surface stories worth sharing.  We also offer modest commissions to enable local artists, film makers and storytellers exhibit & promote their work outdoors. We aim to grow the value of these commissions over time. 

They re-invest income from asset rental to support local content makers and cultural facilitators. 

​

IMG_7270.jpg

Not long after this photo was taken, Donny survived a bad fall from this beloved pony, and only just survived
Storybox was last modified: February 18th, 2022 by Anne Skyvington
August 17, 2021 0 comment
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Publishing

A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read

Click on the following links:

  • Karrana: https://books2read.com/b/3GeoKL
  • Writing a Novel: https://books2read.com/u/m2r6Nj

How does Books2Read work?

Books2Read is an author site featuring book discovery tools developed by indie-publishing service Draft2Digital. We’re 100% indie and 100% awesome at finding books that will make you happy.

Books2Read will help you keep track of your favorite indie authors’ new releases, discover books, and find great reads at the digital store of your choice.

What’s a Universal Book Link?

Universal Book Links provide a single URL that an author, publisher, or fan can share online. Instead of linking to just one digital bookstore (or posting lots of links to lots of different stores), an author can share one Universal Book Link, and readers can follow it to reach the book on their favorite store.

What happens when I click a Universal Book Link?

The first time you click a Universal Book Link, it’ll bring you to a landing page here at Books2Read, where we’ll show you a list of all the bookstores connected to that book. You can click to see the book on any of those stores.

We’ll also give you the chance to save that store as your Preferred Store. If you do, we’ll automatically send you to that store whenever you click any Universal Book Link anywhere on the internet.

What are Author Pages?

Author pages are a central place where readers can learn more about them and find all of their work. It provides a single platform from which you can browse and discover new titles, series and information.

Can I change my store once I choose a preference?

There’s a place to do it on the front page, so yes, you can change your Preferred Store at any time.

Draft2Digital and Books2Read are awesome!

https://www.draft2digital.com/

https://books2read.com/

A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read was last modified: June 22nd, 2021 by Anne Skyvington
October 18, 2020 0 comment
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PublishingWriting

Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills

A book about writing groups

Joining a writing group is very popular these days, at least in Anglo speaking countries. There are many different types of writing groups, just as there are various types of writers. Some writers simply wish to record memories for their family, children and friends to read. Writing correctly and clearly will be a main push for them. Others want to hone their skills towards the goal of writing a short story, or a longer genre, such as a novel or a modern memoir. They will need different skills, for example, knowledge of how to structure a particular genre.

I have been a member of three writing groups over the years, and most participants, when asked, expressed a wish to be published. One of the groups I was a part of was Randwick Writers Group, which has recently published a book that showcases work from six members in search of writing excellence. Each of the six participants found that being part of this group brought their writing up to a new level.

This book is unique in that it has followed members from the initial phase of setting up the group, until this point, five years later, when three members have published novels, and the rest are on the point of doing so.  

If you would like to find out more about the workings of writing groups, this book is what you are looking for. As well as informational content, it also showcases the writings of the authors. It can be purchased through the publisher, Ginninderra Press or through online book stores, such as Amazon and other online bookstores. Enjoy!

Click on this link to have a peep inside the online digital version of the book.

https://www.book2look.com/book/TPULpSvFiE&bibletformat=epub

Purchase the digital book at Amazon Australia

Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills was last modified: July 1st, 2021 by Anne Skyvington
May 7, 2020 0 comment
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Publishing

5 Further Publishing Facts

NIELSEN BOOKSCAN

In December 2000 the situation for publishers began to change a little with the establishment of Nielsen BookScan, a local affiliate of US polling company A.C. Nielsen. Nielsen tracks book sales by barcode from around eighty-five per cent of all retail outlets selling books in Australia. Its main customers are publishing houses which, for an annual subscription fee of up to $100,000, are regularly emailed spreadsheets showing the best-selling books. These include details such as actual copies sold, average selling price and publisher across 140 genre categories and sub-categories.

Of the top 132 best-selling titles listed in the first two pages of the Nielsen top 5000 list for the five weeks ending 1 January 2005, 65 originated from Australia. Of these only four were literary novels: Tim Winton’s The Turning at  number 9, Cloud Street at number 65, and Dirt Music at number 104. Winton is unique in Australian publishing, having both a literary and a large popular audience.

This is another problem for writers such as myself whose work might straddle the literary and commercial fields.

THE RISE OF THE GENRE PARADIGM

The appearance of genre fiction in bestseller lists with the advent of BookScan also granted it a new cultural and economic respectability. Genre fiction is highly author-and formula-driven and attracts reader loyalty, while its authors tend to generate new titles on a regular, often annual, basis, making genre fiction far more reliable than literary fiction from a publisher’s list-building point of view. The authors of popular fiction are also more likely to be granted celebrity status than literary authors, maximising their promotional potential.

The availability of data from companies such as BookScan means that publishers, for the first time, have access to accurate, up-to-the-minute sales figures that are transparent across the industry. No longer is it possible to fudge sales.

THE DECLINE OF LITERARY

Of the recent changes in Australian book publishing, among the most striking is the decline of the literary paradigm.

By the early 2000s almost no major Australian publisher was aggressively seeking or promoting new literary fiction at the forefront of their lists, and literary fiction was no longer the cornerstone of the industry’s self-perception. In the late 1990s Penguin Books, which had been at the forefront of the ‘cultural renaissance’ of the 1960s to 1980s period, first dropped its poetry list.

Literary fiction will otherwise become the preserve of independent or small publishers and self-publishing. The consolidation of publishing has resulted in a counter-movement from established independent publishers such as Text Publishing and Scribe, who have sought to exploit the potential of niche-audience mid-list titles as profit-making prospects with ‘a long tail’. “Midlist” is a term in the publishing industry which refers to books which are not bestsellers but are strong enough to economically justify their publication, and that of further future books from the same author.

In 2004 Text formed a partnership with Scottish publisher Canongate to maximise the value of both lists. New small presses such as Vulgar and Giramondo attempt to offer a home and space for aesthetic freedom an experimentation for mid-list authors disenchanted with mainstream publishers; e.g. Brian Castro who moved to Giramondo.

Confronted by the new market conditions, literary writers have begun to look at ways of reinventing themselves, either turning to a commercial model or else looking overseas.

The increasing difficulty of getting published has fostered an underground push for change and a search for new paradigms, reflected in the rise of alternative literary festivals, a live reading circuit, and self-publishing through make-your-own imprints such as Vandal Press and Cardigan Press both collectives that publish short story collections. Such developments point to how literature might become a do-it-yourself culture that will operate, for the time being, at least partly outside mainstream publishing culture, having cleared itself a space for experimentation and the development of new paradigms.

But publishers say there is no harder sell in the world of books these days than literary fiction.

OTHER OUTLETS

Meanwhile, writers around the world can bypass the traditional publishing process if they wish, and self-publish their work, enjoying unprecedented freedom and autonomy in delivering their work directly to readers.

You create an account with KDP and upload your manuscript, cover images and other required details onto Amazon’s KDP platform. https://kdp.amazon.com/ where you will find all the information you require for setting up and proceeding.

ONE SECRET IS the amount Amazon reports paying out in 2019 to indie publishers and authors through its Kindle Unlimited subscription program. That brings Amazon’s total payout for self-published authors up to $2.2 billion since 2012 when it launched this “pay as you read” program that’s much loved by readers around the world.

KINDLE UNLIMITED

Very few indie authors know what Kindle Unlimited is all about!

Kindle Unlimited is a ‘lending library’ that helps readers discover your books in dozens of countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and beyond. Authors are paid by the number of pages read instead of outright eBook purchases.

Kindle Unlimited is just one of many great sales and marketing opportunities available at Amazon, and self-published authors have found great success using them to launch and promote their eBooks.

Establish a price for your book and list your book’s genre and categories. Choose keywords so readers can find your book, and supply more information, called metadata, about your book.

Your book, digital or printed, will go live on Amazon just a few hours after you’ve uploaded it correctly. Millions of potential readers can now find your book. It’s part of a relatively new distribution process called Print on Demand or POD. Amazon sends out royalty payments to authors each month of 12 to 20 percent of the sales price for the physical POD books and 70% for the eBook sales.

You need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) to distribute your book through retailers globally. Amazon can provide one for you, or you can purchase your own from Thorpe-Bowker Identifier Services https://www.myidentifiers.com/

KBoards is a website devoted to all things Kindle. They’re a small family operation, but they’ve become the largest independent Kindle user site on the web.

5 Further Publishing Facts was last modified: October 12th, 2021 by Anne Skyvington
April 1, 2020 0 comment
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Publishing

5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing

Someone said it takes a village to bring up a child; it’s the same for writing a novel. This was certainly true for me.

Experts say you should write about what you know, so I wrote about my parents’ love story, set in country New South Wales, as Australia was exiting from the Second World War. This was a time when big changes were happening in this part of the world.

I probably showed my work too soon, and to the wrong person/people early on. However, I found an excellent manuscript assessor, and finalised the novel, utilising skills I’d developed over years of creative writing practice and research. I’d also learnt, after long hours in feedback groups, how to self edit my work, both at the macro level and at the micro and middle levels.

I then taught myself how to upload an ebook to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. [KDP]. It proved to be tricky at first.

Going Back to the New Millenium

As Amazon released its first eReader, the kindle, in 2007, I became increasingly interested in the slowly emerging ‘Internet’, and the opportunities it brought to writers everywhere. Just as I was experimenting with all things digital, I joined a writers’ group at Waverley Library and ended up volunteering as a creative writing convenor in 2009. My first step was to create a list of guidelines for giving and receiving feedback; I’ve found that it’s essential for the happy functioning of a group and many others have caught on now.

I had completed Creative Writing Studies at The University Of Technology, Sydney, in 2005. And gradually I’d become fascinated with the concept of ‘blogging’, digital marketing and self-publishing. My own blog The Craft of Writing, journals the past ten years of my educational experience, beginning as a complete Internet newbie, to a digital expert in the field of publishing and creative writing.

What I learnt about Traditional Publishers

A Definition: To greatly simplify matters, a traditional publisher acts as a gatekeeper and pays an advance to authors.

It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted to be published, there was only one route: submitting to a publisher. A traditional publisher, if you are lucky enough to have your manuscript accepted, will pay you an upfront amount of between $5 and $10, 000 or anything up to $50 000. Obamas, the former first couple of the United States, received $60 million for two books. There are exceptions. The catch is that royalties gained are deducted from the cash payment.

Most of the large publishing houses require an agent to represent you. It’s almost impossible for a new writer or author to get published in Australia by the big 5 unless an agent is involved. And it is just as difficult to gain an agent as it is a publisher. Pan Macmillan, Penguin Australia, Random House, Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon and Schuster are busy representing established authors, or taking on famous people such as presidents, sports stars and politicians.

With the onset of digital publishing, printing a book has become cheap. In fact, you can use POD (Print-On-Demand), which prints and mails books out as they’re ordered. To order one of my own books from Ingram, I pay about $25, of which half is the printing and half the shipping costs.

In the US fewer than one percent of submitted manuscripts are published. Without counting self-published titles that makes upwards of 300,000 new titles a year. (If you count self published works, it’s 600, 000 – 1,000, 000 books. Publishers nowadays are positively swamped with submissions. There is so much material to choose from that naturally publishers have become more selective. Queries outline ‘the bones of the story structurally and thematically’ and are written by the author. The competition is intense. 90% are culled just from a query letter. (Source: Jane Friedman).

Large commercial publishers receive hundreds and even thousands of unsolicited manuscripts each year. Some, such as HarperCollins, read only half of them and of those that are read, only about five end up on the shelves of a bookstore. In 1998, Penguin publisher Julie Gibbs noted that her company received an average of 70 unsolicited manuscripts per week – that is, some 3,640 a year – of which only three or four were considered worthy of publication.

The Truth Will Set You Free

Flying High

First the bad news: Most people who write a book will never get it published; half the writers who are published won’t see a second book in print; and most books published are never reprinted. What’s more, half the titles in any given bookshop won’t sell a single copy there, and most published writers won’t earn anything from their book apart from the advance.

The truth is that you and I will still go on writing and enjoying writing because of the passion involved. And you might find that your writing improves greatly, when you are freed from the pressure of seeking a publisher. Plus, there are nowadays other options to the traditional approach.

For a long while, I decided not to expect anything from my writing apart from the personal fulfilment of having learned my craft and believing that I would, maybe, one day create a work that hadn’t existed before.

Authors seeking traditional publication undergo a tortuous procedure that involves identifying appropriate publishers, querying, pitching, contract negotiation…. I went through the hoops, even though I was already published on my own creative writing blog, where I’d learnt how to be correct and dot all the I’s before I ever pushed the publish button.

A blogging mentor suggested that I go through the ropes of being published traditionally and trial the ‘literary speed dating’ event held by the Australian Society of Authors (ASA). All six of the publishers and an agent I met at this event expressed glowing interest in my pitches for Karrana, and gave me their cards. I tried about seven or eight in the Independent Publishers stream. Nothing much followed my queries and written approaches.

One of the problems for me was that learning how to write these written pitches involved using the left (logical) side of my brain, and took me away from creative writing, which had become my passion.

For a new writer, especially, this process is intimidating and scary as they try to navigate the competitive, unfamiliar territory of the publishing world. It’s exhausting and, at times, disheartening. No one likes rejection. It’s your baby, for goodness sakes!

Reputable Independent Traditional Publishers in Australia, such as Text Publishing, Scribe Publications, Ventura, Allen&Unwin, Affirm Press, and Black Inc are also often unwilling to accept a writer’s unsolicited manuscript without an agent’s referral, even though they may advertise to the contrary.

There are Small Presses and Small Presses…

Small presses are an important alternative for writers who don’t want to go the agent-to-big-publisher route, but prefer to avoid the DIY work of self-publishing. Most reputable small presses cannot afford to pay advances, but nor do they charge you an upfront fee.

Respected Small Presses, such as Pantera, Giramondo, Cordite, and Transit Lounge, usually cannot afford to pay advances or assist authors greatly in having their books placed in large bricks-and-mortar bookstores.

These smaller publishers are often under-staffed and not always able to provide complete editing or distribution facilities for new writers. But they’re a good option for a writer starting out.

If a small press requests payment for services, this should be a red light to a writer. Legitimate publishers do not charge an author to publish their book. Important side note: If the small press makes you pay upfront for their in-house editing, design, or production—or makes you pay for copies of your book—they’re not a traditional publisher, but a hybrid publisher or a publishing service. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with utilising these services if you choose to. And you may finish up with a book, or a publishable manuscript, of which you can be proud.

Hybrid publishers combine certain aspects of traditional publishing and self-publishing.

In the case of assisted self-publishing or publishing services (called ‘vanity presses’ in the old days), these companies sometimes adopt the moniker of ‘hybrid publisher’ to look more innovative or attractive to authors. You can’t blame them for doing this. But know that they’re not really a hybrid publisher, unless they can offer value and/or distribution and marketing muscle that can’t be secured on your own as a self-publisher, or with a small publishing press.

The best hybrid publishers conduct some level of gatekeeping, offer value that the author would have a hard time securing on her own, and should also pay better royalties than a traditional publishing deal. (Fifty percent is common). If the hybrid publisher presents itself as little more than ‘Here’s a package of services you can buy’, then it’s most likely a dressed-up self-publishing firm.

Keep in mind that…

Traditional Publishers get a lot of manuscripts, and may take a while to respond — preferring to work on the basis of ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’.

5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing was last modified: July 29th, 2022 by Anne Skyvington
March 23, 2020 0 comment
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Publishing

Highs and Lows of Self Publishing

I haven’t blogged for some time, because of the steep learning curve I’ve found myself on with the next step in the self publishing process. The Kindle content and the cover photo have long been live on Amazon, and re-uploaded several times: https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Karrana&ref=nb_sb_noss_2,,

The next step has been publishing in hard copy, that is, paperback books.

One of the highs of self publishing on Amazon, is that you don’t have to pay money to a third party, or wait for months while publishers decide whether to publish your manuscript or not. You earn 75% royalties rather than what publishers can afford to pay you. You can publish first as an ebook for Kindle, and re-upload until you are satisfied with the product, before ordering paperbacks. Amazon KDP gives feedback when you first upload, advising of any spelling and other errors. There’s a lot of information on the KDP website for the first-time author/publisher: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/.

Forums and help lines exist also, both on KDP and outside, in particular the helpful Kindle Board forum site: https://www.kboards.com/

One of the downsides of publishing with Amazon, if you live in Australia, is the cost to purchase the book in hard copy. I discovered that I couldn’t order Author Copies at a print-only price, which I could have done if I lived in the northern hemisphere. Having contacts in France, however, meant that I could send gifts of the book to relatives for the print-only price and a small additional shipping cost.

Fortunately, I had already opened an account with IngramSpark which also operates here in Australia. It’s a Publish-and-Print-on-Demand company with an office in Melbourne. Their procedure for formatting and ordering hard copy was in line with Amazon’s. Lightning Source to the rescue! Lightning Source is a printer and distributor of print-on-demand books, a business unit of Ingram Content Group. Within very little time, I had ordered a proof copy to be sent to my address in Coogee for a lot less than Amazon’s fees. I await the arrival of this precious cargo, hopefully before I press the publish button on this post.

Another problem was finding a venue for my Book Launch. There is mistrust surrounding self publishing, as many poor quality manuscripts were published in earlier days. Amazon has put a brake on this, by implementing strategies to prevent badly written books being uploaded. For example, I was able to re-upload my document until I had perfected it. I am more than happy with the care and support Amazon provided me and would recommend them to others wishing to try self publishing.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that a progressive bookstore in Glebe was open to my holding a book launch on their premises and supporting me with catering, wine and publicity. Here is a link to their publicity brochure for my forthcoming talk.

Many writers are keen to learn about the process of self publishing, especially if they are proficient at self editing, as well as skilled at creating longer written works. I naively thought that I could offer an Author Talk/Book Launch in a library for my debut novel Karrana, and broaden it to include Self Publishing also. The talk would have focused on my publishing journey, as well as information about self publishing with Amazon. Having met up online with others who know a lot more than me about this publishing process has chastened me. I now realise that my knowledge of self publishing is still in its infancy, and the task would have been huge and beyond my skills to achieve.

Would I accept a publishing deal from a traditional publisher if it came along? Of course, I’d consider it, since much of the work involved in self publishing is taken away from you. Still, I’ve enjoyed the journey and processes involved in creating my own publications. And holding the book in your hands for the first time is almost as good as giving birth.

The Final Choice for a Cover

A more abstract and artistic/creative picture than the original photo seen in the header above.


Highs and Lows of Self Publishing was last modified: January 12th, 2022 by Anne Skyvington
October 16, 2019 3 comments
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A site for beautiful pictures to hang
PublishingWriting

Self publishing a novel as an ebook

What a month it has been! No, make that two—or three…. First a hasty trip to Croatia and to Spain with my husband. I always like to record my travels on my blog, which I did, in between touring around, often alone, (thanks for those cognacs in that foreshore bistro in Cavtat!), as well as in company. Mark’s Symposium was hugely successful due to his great organising skills and untiring workload; that is, along with his colleague Suzana, who also acts as a patriotic diplomat for her beloved country of Croatia. Since the economy rests mainly on tourism, the Symposium is of great benefit to the country.

During the trip I had little time to think about my recently published novel, Karrana, as I was on the go all the time, supporting mon mari, ce heros to look his sartorial best—after all, we were in Europe!—and exploring the foreshore and islands near Cavtat. And blogging about the places, so as not to forget….

Three days spent as tourists in Spain, on the coast, was even more rushed. But we did out best! Eating, eating, eating….

After having succumbed to a nasty virus in March, I had taken advantage of the month spent in bed to edit the manuscript of Karrana: A novel, which certain family members had been urging me to produce. My blog had kept me in practice with general writing skills for years. However, blogging depends on utilising specific genres, more akin to journalism than to long fiction. I still didn’t know if I would be able to pull, out of my bag of tricks, that magic sounding elusive object—a ‘novel’. The members of my critique groups all applauded my efforts and gave me the confidence to continue, and to finish a manuscript.

When I arrived home from Valencia via Madrid and Dubai, last week, I was physically, mentally and culturally jetlagged. In my letterbox was a hardcover book, Skeffington: One-Name Study.

It’s based on a genealogical research project exploring the Skeffington name —my name—far back into past ages. It’s way out of my league, but I was expected to read it and relay to the author, my brother, my impressions, immediately. Impossible!

My heartfelt thanks go to the members of Waverley Writers and to the Randwick Writers Group for their untiring support of my efforts. Thanks also to the manuscript assessment editor from Writing NSW, who provided me with the last piece of the structural puzzle that helped me to finish the work.

A big thank you goes to my sister, Susan, my very first reader, who gave me positive feedback; and to my husband, Mark, who did the same, having recently purchased his first Kindle reader. My friend, Kay, has also helped me with positive input while still reading the novel.

It wasn’t until near the end of writing the novel, that I knew where I was coming from in the beginning!

My novel has, I think, one foot in both genres, literary and commercial fiction.

It is a love story, with a ‘love triangle’ switch towards the end. But it is much much more. I will leave it up to reviewers to say more about the themes and metaphors throughout the book. And about the structure….

Why did I decide to go with Amazon, and to upload it as an ebook, rather than find a publisher? In other words, why did I decide to become an Indie Author? One of the reasons is that I had taught myself to self edit my work, over a long period of trial and error. Keeping a ‘Craft Writing’ blog helped me to research and to iron out many of the structural problems beginning novelists encounter on the path to writing a readable novel.

I felt, at last, one month ago, that I was ready to go.

So I signed in with my Amazon account and studied the guidelines for uploading a manuscript for an ebook. Even for someone technically challenged, I found the KDP directions clear and fairly easy to follow, with a few hitches along the way. Amazon now tells you how many typos and spelling mistakes there are in your initial file. I had 11, which I fixed and re-uploaded the file to their satisfaction. They also provide cover templates to choose from. I could only find one, partially satisfactory, image. In the meantime, my daughter, who is an excellent artist, was creating another one for me. Thanks, Kate.

Now comes the hard phase: marketing and promoting your work. As an excellent editor said at a recent workshop in Sydney:

Firstly, it is immensely helpful to get feedback on your work from trusted beta readers and professional assessors or editors.

Secondly, your ability to continue to develop your work to a publishable standard and to make the most of any feedback you receive relies in part on understanding that you are separate from your words.

Another great advantage of Amazon is that you can make changes to the content and/or the cover and re-upload it afresh.

The featured image on this page is of Bondi Beach at dusk.
You can find it – if you wish to buy a framed picture – on Aquabumps: “Iluka”
https://www.aquabumps.com
Self publishing a novel as an ebook was last modified: February 2nd, 2020 by Anne Skyvington
June 5, 2019 0 comment
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Publishing

Self Publishing

1. Self Publishing Is Easy (according to some!)

Firstly, choose a size for your print book, format your Word manuscript to fit that size, turn your Word doc into a PDF, create some cover art in Photoshop, turn that into a PDF, and upload it all to the self publisher of your choice. You will receive a book proof back within a couple of weeks if you succeeded in formatting everything correctly. You can then make changes in new PDFs.

After you publish your book, you can make extra changes to your cover and text by submitting new PDFs, although your book will go offline for a short period. If you wish to upload a new cover, you may have to pay a fee.

2. Digital, Not Print, Is Your Best Bet – at least in the beginning (according to those in the know)

The whole e-book market is rapidly evolving and a lot of self-publishing companies are offering ebook deals along with their print book publishing packages. If you want to do it yourself, you need to start with a superior quality product and an arresting cover. You can do this with a professional Jpeg, but it has to look good in thumbnail as well.

You have to price your book competitively, $5.99 or less, according to Smashwords. Lulu recommends even lower prices than this. Amazon’s 70% royalty for ebooks only applies to Kindle ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99.

Marketing is all about author/ book discovery. Ideally you need to build a platform via social media before you publish.

3. Let’s get this straight first up:

In self publishing you keep the rights to your book and publish it yourself. You can do this via Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, and Sony, who act as distributors of your book. You retain 70% of the price instead of 17.5% offered by legacy publishers for digital editions.

4. One of the biggest criticisms of self-publishing

Badly written, unedited books, perhaps published by vanity presses, can reach the market and possibly flood it. But I see the readers and reviewers as the new gatekeepers of quality, and the rubbish tends to sink to the bottom of the slush pile quite quickly. We still all need good editors or self-editing (perhaps feedback from peers) for our self published books.

Authors have started employing the term “indie” author to give credence to the new self-publishing pathways, and to underscore the hard work involved. The indie authors do everything the traditional publisher does: they own their own ISBNs and are paid by the retailer/distributor directly.

5. Success Stories

Many of the big-earning indie authors are happy to be picked up by traditional publishers. Amanda Hocking is famous for her $2 million deal with St Martin’s Press.

6. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: (KDP)

If you’re ready to go, you should upload your file directly to KDP and create your own cover to maximise your profit. You can format your e-book from a Word file using an ebook creator, such as Kindle Create, in order to convert it into Amazon’s format AZW.

However, there are formatters available at a small cost if necessary. You might need to use an aggregator such as Smashwords or Lulu to get into the Apple i-Book Store. A new kid on the block is Draft2Digital.

There is a How To Site for beginners like me on Amazon.

7. Other POD Solutions

Ingram Sparks, CreateSpace, iUniverse, AuthorHouse, are Print-On-Demand self publishing companies.

They offer ebook conversion services and distribution, and sometimes hybrid print/publishing packages (these companies usually charge a few hundred dollars for converting your ebook). In some cases, this can work out OK for authors, but be aware that you may not be able to name your own price.

See: Joe Konrath,  Barry Eisler, Joanna Penn

See Also: How Amazon is Trying to Rescue Literary Fiction

Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know

Self Publishing was last modified: January 12th, 2022 by Anne Skyvington
May 3, 2019 0 comment
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PublishingWriting

How to create an ebook in 5 easy steps…

Why design an ebook?

I wanted to include a special offer for new subscribers to my blog. This is called a lead magnet. I decided to create an ebook based on several of my updated blog posts. I chose five favourite posts from this  blog, Craft of Writing.

First up I had to write the content for my book, which I did using a microsoft word file. I decided to call the book “An Introduction to Writing Craft.”

The Basic Format for an ebook

Next I had to research the structure of an ebook. The format I chose to follow for this, was a three-part one composed of: 1. An Introduction 2. The Content Chapters 3. A Call to Action.

In the introduction I explain to the reader why I am writing the ebook; I give an overview the contents, and discuss why I have chosen these five posts.

The five content chapters comprise the five chosen posts.  The main theme of these chapters is what I like to call the “macro skills” involved in writing a novel.  Be advised that this term is one I have appropriated for my own purposes, in order to explain what I see as the two parameters of novel writing. Both parameters are important: Macro issues to do with the whole text, and the micro issues of words, sentence structure and punctuation within the work.

The third CTA chapter was devised so that I could learn from my readers how useful the book is, and how subsequent eBooks might be improved or changed.

I chose a potential picture for the cover of the book. The cover for the ebook became a simple red “default” template.

ancient-typewrite

The Technical Terms

This was my first foray into creating an ebook. I  had to teach myself the technical jargon involved, having lost the support of my digital expert friend, due to illness during last year.  The first thing I discovered was that some people choose not to distinguish between the two formats: eBooks and PDF files.

PDF stands for “Portable Document Format”, and is the most well-known file type.

EPub stands for  “Electronic Publication,” and is up to its 3rd major update. It is the more flexible ebook format. Literally every device can handle ePub, except Kindles.

Ebooks are created in a format that changes shape according to the device you read it on.

Learning Digital Skills

I decided to teach myself, step-by-step, how to produce both files. In fact, I found that the one led on to the other.

The first step in creating my first eBook was to convert the original microsoft word file “An Introduction to Writing Craft” into a PDF file. I had had experience of doing this before, at least with simpler files. So that was quite straightforward.

cover-first-page

The next step was more challenging for me as a novice publisher: Transferring the Pdf file into an ePub file.ebook-cover-on-apple-books

I was ultimately able to do this, only after several failed attempts.

The cover turned out to be a default template, which I decided to go along with at this stage.

I now declare that I am the author and publisher of an eBook entitled An Introduction to Writing Craft, that I have stored on my laptop computer in my Apple Books application. My next step is learning how to share it with subscribers to my blog.  Or shall I share the PDF file instead?

How to create an ebook in 5 easy steps… was last modified: March 21st, 2019 by Anne Skyvington
March 15, 2019 0 comment
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PublishingWriting

Publishing Streams in Australia

A Seminar I Attended

In July I attended an excellent seminar held at the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) in Ultimo, Sydney, titled “Pitch Perfect”. The convenor, Emily Booth, an editor from Melbourne company, Text Publishing, led the workshop on how to pitch our manuscript to agents and publishers. One of the most helpful pieces of information, as well as the guidelines on synopsis writing and pitching, was a classification of principal publishing firms:

There are three main publishing streams in Australia:

Large Traditional Houses:

Interested mainly in already published authors, or those with a social presence, such as Bill Clinton, whose books will sell in the thousands:  Not available to new authors, unless you have an agent: also called The Big Five:

Random Penguin House is an example; Hachette; Pan Macmillan; Harper Collins; Simon & Schuster.

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Publishing Streams in Australia was last modified: February 10th, 2020 by Anne Skyvington
October 19, 2017 0 comment
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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="https://www.anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

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