Posts Tagged ‘publishing’

Is Going From Indie to Traditional Good or Bad?

Posted: December 3, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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Yesterday I wrote how I’d read a TIME magazine article and it had given me hope. After I’d posted that and started getting ready for bed, I thought about how some self-publishing writers made enough sales that they were noticed by the traditional publishing houses in New York and signed lucrative contracts for their books. It made me wonder, is starting independent and then signing up with a traditional publishing house once one presents an offer a smart move?

Well, let’s weigh the pros and cons. Some former indie authors  have said that they’re happy they don’t have to manage marketing their books or paying for illustrators/copy editors/advertisers/possible print orders if you make enough money for it. There’s also the security and old prestige that still comes with being associated with a publishing house, and with a publishing house backing you, they can get your books into stores, help negotiate movie/audiobook deals, and the occasional lawsuit where someone says something absolutely ridiculous about your book and what it’s doing to young people or how a single character is a slanderous caricature of them. Your books can read a wider audience, and who like a publishing house can garner you a good review or get you on Ellen?

However, there are some negatives: You have to submit to the publishing house’s rules, aka write what will sell, and the publisher ends up taking a large amount of the royalties from print sales. You lose a lot of control over what you have, and if you decide to break your contract with the compnay over creative differences, not only will the company retain control over most, if not all, of the work you published with them, they’ll badmouth you throughout the industry for being a sore loser. Also, if you’re name’s not J.K. Rowling and you don’t continue to give them amazing work, they can ask for your advance from your previous work back or impose other such penalties or even drop you (or so I’ve heard).

I guess it depends on the writer, his/her circumstances, and how s/he feels about traditional vs. independent publishing. For me, I’d only sign up with a publisher if they gave me a lot of rights and incentives over my work. But of course, I first have to get the work out. Let’s hope that’s soon.

I Can’t Wait To Self-Publish

Posted: December 2, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Reflections, Writing
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My dad called me last night and told me to get my hands on a copy of the latest issue of TIME magazine, saying there was an article that ran 5-6 pages on the ever-growing industry of self-publishing. I asked a friend of mine in my dorm if I could borrow his copy, and this evening I sat down to read it. What I saw encouraged me; there were so many stories of authors who had found success in the self-publishing industry, and even those who’d sold only a few hundred copies or less were finding ways to increase sales. It made me think: I hope that when Reborn City comes out, it’s a success.

Of course, I’m a bit far away from that at this point. I’ve only gotten three chapters finalized, and I’m waiting for the next one. At this rate I’ll probably be finished sometime between March and June. But I’m already gedtting ready, spreading the word as much as I can. Soon I’ll start up my own Facebook page as a writer, and see about creating a fan page for RC. I’m also getting a lot of work on Snake done and I hope to have that done by the end of the year, God-willing, and then I’ll start planning publishing that (and seeing if there’s someone who can look at it and give me an opinion before I put it out). And if I have the energy, I may just put out a small collection of horror short stories. With the power of e-publishing and the author as the marketer, the possibilites are endless.

So let’s hope I can get RC soon. If I can sell 1000 copies of RC, I’ll consider this all a success.

By the way, question for the other self-publishers who read this blog: how are your books doing? And what’re you doing to increase your sales and exposure (besides blogging a lot, of course).

More from the Self-Publishing Front

Posted: November 20, 2012 in Progress Report
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Hi again. So you know how I’m planning on self-publishing my novel Reborn City, right? Well, I also said I was planning on starting a small, independent press for legal purposes, and was contemplating what sort of business my press should be. Well, my uncles–one of whom is a lawyer–jumped in and asked me some questions. Several emails and phone calls later, and a bit of counseling on legal matters (thanks, Uncle Joel and Uncle Arthur; your metaphorical checks are in the mail), and I’ve come to the conclusion that a press won’t really help me, not until I at least have something I can offer to major publishers who are considering distributing my work, and unfortunately at this point, I don’t.

Hopefully someday though, I will have something to offer them. Just got to finish the final draft of Reborn City, and then get it out. Maybe then, I’ll have publishers knocking on my door (can’t hurt to hope, right?).

The First Time I Was Paid For My Writing

Posted: November 15, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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There comes a time when a writer achieves something that says, “My writing is really worth something.” And that’s the first time we’re paid for something we wrote.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, was first paid for his work when his novel, A Princess of Mars, was published in the serial magazine All-Story. For the serialization rights, Burroughs was paid four-hundred dollars, quite a bit of money back in 1911, and an even bigger sum for a struggling husband with two kids to feed. Years later, with several successful science fiction, fantasy, romance, and western stories under his belt, Burroughs would claim it all paled to the feeling of accomplishment he felt when he recieved that check for $400.

Similarly, I was first paid for something I wrote in my senior year of high school, when I wrote a short story for a magazine called TEA, A Magazine. The short story I wrote, which I had geared towards this very magazine, was called Summers with Grandmother Fumika, and was about a young girl in Japan who hosts a tea ceremony for a fox spirit with her grandmother. The magazine paid me $100 for the story, and published it in their Winter 2011 edition, with a little illustration in one corner of the fox spirit to boot.

That $100 felt like a gold brick to me. And even though I haven’t gotten any paid pieces since, I think that no matter how successful my short stories or my novels may possibly become, I’ll be like Edgar Rice Burroughs, feeling the most pride for a small sum of money.

What about you? Have you ever been paid for your work?

What did it feel like?

Update on the Self-Publishing Front–Part 2

Posted: November 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Okay, remember my last post, where I said I’d probably set up my press as a sole proprietorship? Well, I got an email from an uncle of mine who has to deal with lawyers from time to time (including his brother-in-law), and he said I’d do better with an LLC. I believe him, but I also plan to talk to my other uncle on that side of the family, who, although not in business, is a lawyer, jsut to check one or two things about the differences and the benefits and disadvantages of LLCs and sole proprietorships.

So, just wanted to let you know about that. I’ll hopefully figure this out quickly and won’t have any problems setting things up. Wish me luck.

News on the Self-Publishing Front

Posted: November 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
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I’ve mentioned this once or twice, but I’m preparing to self-publish my science-fiction novel Reborn City (still being looked over by a friend at this moment, hope for some new news soon). I’ve also mentioned that I’ll be starting up my own independent publishing press, both as a way to gain more legal control over my published work and as a way to gain maximum profit if, God-willing, my books are picked up by a major publishing company.

Well, I contacted Ohio State’s Student Legal Services to see if they had any advice in that area, because I have no idea whether or not forming these sorts of businesses requires any paperwork to be filed or fees to be paid to the state or whatever. They emailed me today, about an hour after I’d sent my email to them, attaching a document with all the different business types here in Ohio and what was required to create any of them. Looking over the document, I think my best bet would be to create a sole proprietorship, which would give me all the control over the business and its assets, and all I’d have to do would be to file a form with Ohio’s Secretary of State if I’m using a business name other than my own (which I plan to do). I’ll probably download both the document SLS sent me and the forms for the business once I can get to a printer, so until then I’ll be making sure no one else has the name I plan to use for the press (I’ll let you know what it is as soon as the paperwork’s filed and I have everything in order).

You know, this self-publishing process is easier than I thought it might be. So far, the only fees I might accrue are copyright and trademark fees, especially given I’ll be formatting my work as e-books and the sites I’ll be using don’t charge for the formatting. Hopefully my books will be successful as well (fingers crossed). Now I just have to put the final touches on Reborn City, get a cover, set up the business, set a release date, and do some advertising. Not too much trouble, right?

Read “Ripple” Now

Posted: November 5, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Remember, remember,
The 5th of November
When my alien story came out
I see no reason, this page you should be leaving,
And not find out what my story’s about.

Did you like that? That fourth line gave me trouble, but I got it to rhyme pretty well.

So yes, Ripple is now published on Nth Degree magazine, an online publication devoted to science-fiction and fantasy pieces, and they just published my story, Ripple. I came up with Ripple after watching the movie District 9, when I was thinking about how in all the movies about aliens visiting Earth, the aliens are either friendly and humans are the bad guys or the aliens are downright evil and humans need to defend themselves. District 9 kind of broke away from that pattern, but I wondered if there was a story that broke away from it even more. This eventually led to me writing Ripple about a year ago, and now a year after I started its first draft, it’s been published.

I’m so happy right now. I would like to thank the folks at Nth Degree for publishing Ripple. You have no idea what it means to me that you published it.

Below are the addresses for the website and the short story, respectively. I hope you check out both, not only to read my story, but maybe to see if you’d want to submit something to Nth Degree. Also, I would not mind feedback on Ripple. Tell me what you like, what you hate. Heck, even tell me that my aliens are unimaginative or remind you a little bit of the Navi or anthropologists. I don’t care. Just tell me what you think.

Hope you like what you read. Enjoy.

http://nthzine.com/

http://www.nthzine.com/fiction_online.php?archiveDisplay=20121105

I’ll Be Using Smashwords

Posted: October 24, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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When I publish Reborn City, that is. I did a little research, and I found out that Smashwords, besides being a retailer for e-books, allows authors to self-publish their works as e-books, formats them for other distributors such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and even gives you ISBNs. All this and more for how much? Free! And the authors keep exclusive rights to their works while Smashwords distributes the books. Not only that, but authors keeps up to 85% of the profits (70.5% from partner distributors) and can take their works off or modify them at any time.

With all this and more, is it any suprise that so many authors are using Smashwords? I don’t think so!

I would like to thank my friend Pat Bertram for pointing out the website and its many features (for her blog, click here: http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/ ). Once again, I hope to have RC out as soon as possible, so please bear with me till then and keep reading Rami Ungar the Writer.

If you want to check out Smashwords, here’s the address: http://www.smashwords.com/. While you’re checking it out, I’ll be signing up for a free account. Have a stress-free day.

The Edits Are Done! Yahoo!

Posted: October 15, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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To get why I posted this picture, read below.

Ladies and gentlemen, get out of your chairs, and start dancing in front of your computer or while holding whatever portable electronic device you are reading this post on! I’ve finished the edits on Reborn City! I thought the editing would take a couple of months, but instead it took a couple of weeks. I wonder if my idols in the world of writing literature have it this easy with their novels when they do the final edits.

So, RC‘s at 24 chapters, with each chapter averaging about four edits total. The longest chapter is the first one, with thirty-four pages, and well over 10,000 w0rds. The epilogue is definitely the shortest, with less than a page and barely two-hundred words, if even that. All told, the entire novel, in 8 1/2″ x 11″ pages, with a 12-point font and double-spaced, is 313 pages (whistle-whistle!). The word count, which requires no calculating of page sizes or anything, is 90,850. To which I say, holy crap.

Well, now I plan to go take a nap, because it’s close to midnight right now. Tomorrow I’ll send this baby off to a friend (his email address is conveniently in the emails I got when he commented on previous posts; expect an email saying “rami ungar reborn city” in the subject line), then go to class. At some point I’ll work on editing and writing some short stories, and when November rolls around get to work on Snake for National Novel Writing Month, or as we writers like to call it, NaNoWriMo.

And what happens after I get Reborn City back from my friend? Well, I’ll do the edits he suggests, and then I’ll get to work on doing everything else that needs to be done so that you all can read Reborn City.

You know, I’ve seen this process of self-publishing Reborn City sort of like a train, and every time I get to a new milestone in the process, I’ve reached a new station. When do I get to the final stop? I’m not sure; I’m certainly ahead of schedule, but who knows how long that’ll last?

Anyway, I hope for some more good news soon. That way I can share it with you as soon as possible.

To all, a good night (or if you just turned on your computer and you’re reading this with your morning coffee, good morning. Some weather today, huh?). Sweet dreams, and happy blogging to you.

Chapters Rise, Chapters Fall

Posted: October 15, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Or to be more precise, the number of chapters fall and the number of chapters fall.

I wrote a couple posts back that I’d decided to change the way the main characters of Reborn City met up with the big bad guys, so that meant tacking on another chapter. I wasn’t sure if the number of chapters would rise again or if it would drop. Wouldn’t you know it? I ended up deleting a chapter that was unnecessary with the new course of the story (which I’m glad I went with; the story’s much better this way). So I’m back to twenty-four chapters, including a nice little epilogue.

And speaking of which, I’m in the middle of editing chapter twenty-one. I’m in the home stretch, and much sooner than I expected. Who knows, if my friend who’s agreed to look over RC after it’s done (you know who you are) gets through it quickly, I might be able to get the e-book out…December or January. Either way it works out wonderfully, because RC takes place in mid-summer. When we’re freezing our butts off in the middle of winter, it’ll be nice to sit back with our e-reader and read about a gang war with a conspiracy behind it in the middle of July, right?

Hope to have more soon. Wish me luck as I do the final edits.

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