self-publishing

Setting Up Your Own Book Signing: Part 1

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Let’s face it. As self-published authors, setting up our own book signings sucks! Of course we can hire a family member, college student, retired person, or an upworks.com professional to do the job. But it’s a money thang, right? We don’t want to spend it! Instead, we thrust aside the next book we are itching to work on, and commit tedious hours per week to securing speaking gigs on our most recently published book.

We force ourselves to sound bright and cheerful on the phone as we pitch our book signing events, via phone and email, to dozens of book stores, organizations, associations, fancy restaurants and bars, religious sites, retirement villages, conferences, and arts & crafts fairs. (How’s that for the longest run-on sentence in history? Not!)

Of course we’ve kept an Excel sheet or notebook on who we spoke to (the manager or event coordinator’s contact information), name and address of venue (book store, etc.), and dates we contacted them (including their feedback).

Way to go! We’ve landed four gigs over the next three months, which we’ve dutifully written down and yellow-highlighted in our monthly calendars. Our phone calendars are a nice back-up, but printing our  view our upcoming gigs on a nice big calendar pad!

Now we have to get the word out. Even the most extroverted of us find it scary as hell to market our own wares. Stay tuned for Part 2….

 

How I Self-Published My Book Through Ingram Spark

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Yeah! Psychobabble, my fourth psychological thriller, is live on Kindle and Amazon! Equally as exciting, the paperback version will be available through Barnes & Noble and other book stores and libraries throughout the world! How did a self-published author get onto the bookshelves? Here’s the steps I took to make it happen:

  • Asked Barnes & Noble how I, a self-published author, could get my books on their book shelves. Ingram Spark was their answer: 855-997-7275, weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., weekends 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. or ingramsparksupport@ingramcontent.com
  • Viewed all (actually, just a few) of their videos, blogs, and templates, re: book size, book cover, retail price of book, wholesale discount to book store, geographical locations throughout the world to place book, etc.
  • Set up an account with Ingram Spark, and then sent my developmental editor, copy editor, and book cover editor (Yes, you must assemble this team first; will discuss how on next blog) a link to my account so they could see what I could see.
  • While my team worked on putting a publishable book together for me to upload to Ingram Spark, I hopped on Ingram’s website and completed the brief description, longer description, and other content required on my book.

DON’T DO WHAT I DID AND SCHEDULE A BOOK LAUNCH OR SIGNING BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A HARD COPY OF YOUR BOOK IN HAND! Allow two to three months to get it all together, from developmental edit to publication date.

I didn’t understand that each time I made any type of change on Ingram Spark regarding my book, it pushed the publication date back at least a week. Then I had an eproof, and even ordered a paperback proof, before publishing.

JUST KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO THIS! I can’t tell you how many times I phoned and emailed Ingram Spark. Even though you might have to wait on the telephone for quite a while during the lunch or dinner times of day, they are super responsive and helpful. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

 

 

 

 

 

Self-Publishing Again!

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Yep, I’ve decided to once again self-publish — this time it’s mystery novel Number Four! Instead of sending out queries on Psychobabble to forty or fifty carefully selected literary agents as I’ve done in the past, I only reached out to half that number. When I failed to receive a bite, I did not flush my word marbles down the toilet. That’s because a psychic I trust told me my best chance to get my newest psychological suspense novel up and running was to go the self-publishing route.


This psychic was one year off about when my daughter would get pregnant, so you’d think I would have learned my lesson. But in my heart — as well as in my accumulated knowledge base — I know self-publishing is the correct choice for me.


I’ve already had a psychologist, a mystery author, and several Beta readers (mystery fans) read and critique my manuscript.  Although I was unable to hook CPD detectives to review my manuscript for accuracy, I still can hit up detectives I’ve met through the Sheriff’s Citizens Police Academy in North Carolina. (Notice I’ve said “met,” as in you gotta do the footwork and can’t just rely on the Internet and CSI.)


For the back cover, I plan to get book blurbs by the psychologist and mystery author. Writing a tantalizing couple of paragraphs that will hook the reader to read the book is more tricky and takes me days to accomplish. (I ask my book editor to critique those paragraphs before proceeding.)


Stay tuned for my next post on my further adventures in self-publishing! Be sure to send me your comments or questions, too!