Blug Life

From the creator of the infamous "Editing Letter" video, Lara Zielin presents the Bluggie. Check this hilarious video out (especially if you find snuggies, bling, or the song Tik Tok by Ke$ha amusing). Check out Lara's blog for info on how to win your own Bluggie. :)

Bluggie "Infomercial": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OTauBNWNTw&feature=player_embedded

Lost Writing Blues- Call for Story Sharing

I got a heartbreaking email today: while working on his novel, the S.O. walked away from his laptop in a library today to check some information on the internet. Laptop stolen. He only lost 2 chapters of his novel; the rest was backed up online. Unfortunately, he's now a struggling writer facing the cost of a new laptop.

This begs the latest blog question: Do you have a writing horror story? Computer crashed and you lost good work? Lost more than just a few chapters? Share in the comments section!

eBook Architects and our EBook

So, eBook Architects came through for my writer S.O. and I in a big way last week. For $210 we had the galley PDF converted into a file for Smashwords Premium files (available for ALL e-book readers and computers) and a file for Kindle. I also paid $125 for our own ISBN for the e-book file. This is not something we had to do, so we could have had everything for $210. I bought the ISBN for the electronic book (not through eBook Architects) so that in the future, if we parted from AuthorHouse with the paperback/ hardcover editions of the novel, we wouldn't have to worry about the electronic book- the ISBN belongs to us, not another publishing company. We are truly 100% self-publishers of the e-book.

Now comes the hard part: selling. Uploading the documents to Smashwords and Amazon Kindle was relatively easy. However, in the past 7 days, we've only sold 2 copies on Smashwords and had 6 free sample downloads (awesome perk on Smashwords: you can allow anyone to download a portion of your book for free to sample before buying). That means I'll have to invest more time and possibly money into advertising, neither of which I have much of now, but perhaps after the holiday season. Bad news on Amazon front: their system says it will take them 24-72 hours to check you book and make it available for Kindles. It's been a week, and I'm still getting the same message. At the same time, on Smashwords, someone can download a Kindle version of the book. Frustrating.

I will keep readers updated on experiences with sales and marketing, but I do recomment eBook Architects. The owner of the company was VERY easy to work with and saved me a LOT of stress. Hopefully it will pay off monetarily in the future as well. :)

Evolution of a Blog

So, I've been blogging for the past month or so about once a week. Really, I'd like to be blogging more frequently, but as this blog originated to vent the frustrations and celebrate the triumphs of my and my S.O.'s venture into writing and publishing, I've realized that, as with everything in life, there are droughts and floods. My writing has slowed (this week= zero blog entries. sad.) with my own busyness AND simply with a slow period for either frustrations or triumphs. The S.O. is writing. I am waiting to hear about the e-book copy of Novel #1. I follow the blogs of writers and agents. I keep up with my Twitter. Between these different events and circumstances, I'm not always bitten by the writer's bug- a feeling shared by all those out there who are actually working on writing short stories, novels and poetry, too, I'm sure. So here is what I will be attempting during the month of December (and it will take time, folks! No promises of instant success;)):

1) I am going to push myself, like all writers must, to work more on consistency, relevance, and quality of my own blog posts.

2) I am going to pursue interviews with writers, especially new writers, who will have something unique to offer my audience.

3) I am going to pursue guest bloggers from different areas of writing and publishing, which will also bring new, relevant and interesting information to my audience.

4) I am going to seek out requests from my audience on this blog and Twitter regarding what readers would actually like to read about.

As per #4, please comment below or email towriteandpublish@gmail.com regarding any requests for a blog entry or interview.

Thanks!

Thanksgiving for Writing and Publishing

Following in the vein of Nathan Bransford and Lara Zielin, I'd like to take a moment this week to count the things I'm thankful for in writing and publishing.

1) I'm thankful for the Blogosphere- for bloggers like Kristin Nelson and Nathan Bransford, for blogs like GLA and Publetariat, for all of this dialogue and information that helps me learn more about the writing and publishing world.

2) I'm thankful for Twitter, for putting me in contact with tons of other fabulous individuals (like Joanna Penn of thecreativepenn, Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed, and Henry Baum of selfpubreview, to name a few) in the writing world and giving me a daily news feed of hot topics in the writing world.

3) I'm thankful for the infinite hope in the possibilities of writing.

4) I'm thankful for an infinite list of moving, inspiring, heart wrenching, and absolutely entertaining books.

5) I'm thankful for literary agents who exist to help authors achieve their dreams.

6) I'm thankful for sites and individuals (aforementioned Publetariat and Henry Baum's Self Publishing Review among them, plus tweets from Indieauthor) for the information and encouragement they give to self-published writers and those interested in self-publishing and self-published books.

7) I'm thankful for the rare moments when I dream and actually do my own writing.

8) I'm thankful that my S.O. is plugging away at his writing.

9) I'm thankful for those that follow my blog and Twitter account and give me encouragement through comments or simply being a follower.

10) I'm thankful for anything that I am able to give to others interested in writing and publishing.

Writing, Reviews, Blogging, Etc.

Latest update on all things writing and promoting the self-published novel:

1) eBook Architects, which I previously wrote about, is scheduled to have both a Kindle copy and a Smashwords premium copy (that can be sold to and read on Sony eReaders, through Barnes and Noble, etc.) of the S.O.'s self-published novel ready for launch on Dec. 7th. Exciting!

2) He is plugging away on the 2nd novel. He is a little over half way done. Once finished, the novel will undergo significant revisions before being sent out to agents for traditional publishing. Goal for Ready-to-Send-Out= Summer 2010.

3) Today I emailed Odyssey Reviews and Front Street Reviews to see if they have the interest/ room in their queue for reviewing said self-published novel. It was published in 2008 and is still selling well, but every bit of free advertising/ positive review helps! I haven't been able to help out much with marketing lately, so getting these two emails out felt really good. I will also be looking for reader review blogs whose owners would be interested in reading the book and reviewing it for their blogs.

Kindle and eBook Marketing

To all who are HTML saavy or starting from scratch creating a digital file for their book, I commend you and envy your knowledge and wherewithal.

I, on the other hand, have finally come to the conclusion that 1) I don't have the time and won't have the time, any time soon, to learn to do a Kindle-friendly conversion of a PDF file. Nor will my significant other, who is more concerned (as he should be) with writing his next novel. AND 2) I can't in good conscience NOT have a digital file of the S.O.'s novel on the market, especially around holiday time.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me about the debatable necessity of having one's novel available in some electronic form, but from all that I have read in both the self-publishing and traditional publishing world, there are just too many people now reading on Kindles or Sony E-Readers, etc., to ignore. Some of them, popular literary agent Nathan Bransford included, argue that for those addicted to their Kindles (e-readers, etc.), the choice is no longer between hard copy or electronic format. It's electronic format or they won't bother to read it.

For the above reasons, I have decided to shell out some pocket cash to have eBook Architects convert my PDF to a Kindle-friendly format. The prices can run between $120 and $220, generally, for a work of fiction. Is it worth it? Will we even earn that back?? Hopefully, because that would mean good sales figures. :) I will keep you, readers, posted on our experience with it.