Releasing to Multiple E-Readers

Today was spent releasing my book The Great Heist to all the e-readers (in addition to Kindle, in which it was already available.)  I was intending for this pots to be the announcement that it's available on all these readers, but I had forgotten what a bureaucratic mess it all is, and how long it takes for the book to become available on the other sites.

First, I should explain the top places to release your e-book.  They are:

Kindle

Smashwords

Google Play

Goodreads

Drivethru Fiction

Scribd

I have placed them in the order in which I do them based on a delicate balance of value for you vs. how much of a headache they are.  Below I list each one and how I feel about them.

Kindle is the number one spot for independent writers/publishers.  It just is.  There are other places with a great independent spirit, like Smashwords, but the simple fact is that Kindle makes it easiest for independent writers/publishers, and they help promote them the most.  By placing our books in Amazon alongside larger publishers' books, we get the same respect and potential sales as anyone else.  Amazon also recommends our e-books when someone buys something similar.  But most important to this particular blog post, the publishing process is easy.  First of all, it's a very streamlined process.  The amount you need to do to prepare your document is rather minimal, and when you upload it, their program will help fix little problems you may have, and you can check it right away, seeing how it looks on various readers immediately.  And if there are any problems, you can call them and they'll actually talk to you!  Many other distributors complain about Kindle having unfair competitive policies, but there's a reason they're ahead, and rather than complain about them, other e-readers and distribution channels should learn from Kindle and maybe do what they do.  It's for these reasons that I typically start my books on the KDP Select exclusive deal with Kindle for the first 90 days before making it available on other readers.  I'd love to open up to the other sites right away, but Kindle is just simply the most supportive and easiest to deal with.

Smashwords is the second place to go.  And in some ways, one could go with just being on Kindle and Smashwords and be fine.  When you publish something through Smashwords, it goes out to just about everyone except Kindle, so everyone you want to carry the book has it.  It's run by Mark Coker, probably the largest supporter of independent books.  It's because he's so supportive of independent artists that I want to go to Smashwords first, but in order to upload to them, a publisher has to go through a whole bureaucratic process that's extremely complicated and frustrating.  The good news is that when you finally get it right, it's formatted for a whole bunch of different readers, so you only have to do it once.  This is true, and it's nice to not have to do it multiple times, but by the time you prepare this one file,  you'll feel like you've done it a bunch of times.  Smashwords provides a guide to help you prepare your document... that's literally more than a hundred pages long.  And if you get lost, there's no one to call; just a note that tells you that it's wrong after you upload it.  You can't even preview it to see what it looks like and where the problem is exactly.  The excuse for this is simply that it's publishing, and therefore complicated.  I would accept that if it wasn't for the fact that Kindle is so easy to publish onto.  I don't blame Coker or the team at Smashwords.  I think they're doing their best to make it easy on us.  I think it's the fault of the companies it gets distributed to, like Barnes & Noble, Sony, etc.; these companies that complain about Amazon having unfair business practices rather than learning from them and improving their services.

Google Play is fast becoming an important distribution platform, particularly because of the Android tablets they sell to.  Also, the way Google is growing, it's got its fingers in many areas.  Personally, I like the convenience.  I know some people feel like it intrudes on their personal lives, but I really like the way I can connect all my various projects and jump between them with ease.  I can have a book trailer on Youtube that connects to these blogs which connect to my calendar which connect to my email, etc.  And now my books can be part of this mix.  The biggest problem has been a very poorly organized site with which to upload the books.  Every single time I used the system I had problems.  Links were broken, instructions were incorrect, it was a mess.  Worst of all, they had no phone number to call for help.  I could email and maybe get a response sometime that week, but that's all.  I often begged the people to give me some phone number because the issues were usually easily solvable in less than a minute over the phone, but they took more than a month by email.  I write all this in past tense, however, as they seem to be solving their problems now.  Let's hope it gets better... and that they start to have phone support!

Goodreads is of course the place where people generally go to talk about books, but they now have an option to purchase e-books directly on their site.  This is a great thing, as the majority of people on there are book fans.  If they can instantly purchase books they've been recommended, so much the better.  The problem with this is that these services are just being implemented, and it needs vast improvement to work properly.  Like Google Play, there's no phone service, and issues that could be resolved in minutes take over a month.

Drivethru Fiction is a personal favorite of mine, but the number of people who know about it is limited.  It's nice because it's connected to several other game and comic book sites, so it attracts a lot of fantasy and sci fi fans.  What's wonderful for writers is that they have a great method of advertising.  Every month you get a certain number of points you can use to advertise.  You can get more points by doing various activities that help the community, such as reviewing other people's work.  Also, don't let the name fool you.  Just because it says "fiction" doesn't mean you can't sell non-fiction on it.

Scribd hardly needs mentioning if you do Smashwords.  It's supposed to already be distributed there if you go through Smashwords.  However, I haven't noticed many sales through Scribd when I went through Smashwords, but I have seen sales when I put things on directly, so I always upload here separately.  Scribd is a great place to get noticed.  Every time I upload I instantly get dozens of reads.  I usually have 10 to 20 before I switch from the uploading screen to the reading screen.  It seems to be the perfect place to get people to notice you so they then start purchasing.  Plus, it's easy to upload!  No bureaucratic nonsense!  Google, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Goodreads, these guys could learn a few things from Scribd and Drivethru Fiction.

2014 Release Schedule

This is going to be a busy year for me.  There are a bunch of books I've started but had to abandon for a time while I did something else.  The result is a backlog of half-finished projects which need to be completed.  Thus, I have a list of books ready to be finished and released.  Here is the schedule:

January - Pro Bono audiobook
February - Relic Worlds - Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World
July - Relic Worlds short stories
August - Two Gun Hart (Finished, but release may be later)
September - Relic Worlds Pick Your Path books
October - The American Game
December - Relic Worlds - The Last Transmission

I will also be releasing several games, but I don't know what month they'll be released.  They are:

Relic Worlds - The Lost Worlds
Command Combat: Civil War - Gettysburg (Board game)
Command Combat: Civil War - Naval combat (Board game)
Command Combat: Civil War - 1864 (Miniatures expansion)

Next year is also filling up.  I have four books and three games already in development for release.  And somewhere in all these, I need to find time for my video things, which are:

Command Combat Battle Reports
Command Combat Computer Reports
Geo-Hunters
The Bandwagon Network

You'll see everything as it comes up at: www.bandwagononline.com

How I Organize and Write Nonfiction

I was having drinks with a friend when she asked me how I put a nonfiction book together.  I thought it was an odd question because, like often happens when people ask us about things we do all the time, I thought everyone knew.  I took my knowledge for granted.  In my mind it was just a simple process of getting the information and putting it down in a narrative way.

But the more I got to telling her what I do, the more I realized how complicated it is, so I decided to put down, albeit a bit briefly, what my process is for writing nonfiction.

Obviously, the first step is getting the information.  The very first things I need to do is get the bare basics of the story; the one page pitch, as it were, to figure out what the overall story is, why it’s worth telling, and how I would describe it briefly to someone.  This often winds up being the majority of the back cover description.  I take the time here to find out if there’s enough information to cover a full length book.  Sometimes a topic is fascinating, but you can’t make a full book out of it without making things up.

The next thing I do is dive into the information.  I will read everything and watch ever documentary I can.  I take sources of information I already knew existed, including experts on the topic, and I also look at the sources of the books, documentaries, etc. to add to the list.  For instance, I’ll look in the bibliographies of books to get names, places, etc.  Of course, I’ll also Google information as well, though I don’t simply take the information I see on the internet.  Again, I look at the sources and I go to look at them.

I don’t write for a long time.  I’ll spend weeks diving through all of this information.  The difference between writing fiction and nonfiction is in fiction you lay back and think; in nonfiction you sit up and read.

When I finally feel I understand the topic well enough, I still don’t start writing.  I make a very basic outline of how I intend to approach the topic.  I then take that outline and break it down into chapters.  This is the most important organizational tool I can use.  Though these chapters do usually wind up being the actual chapter breaks in the book, they don’t have to be.

The reason for my breaking the book into chapters at this point is simply to categorize where all the information will go.  It’s too much to tackle all the information at once, so I need to have a category for each chapter.  I actually create a separate folder in my computer for each chapter, and I’ll drop the information for that chapter only into that bin.  Sometimes I’ll have physical folders for each chapter for the physical information I have as well.

For example, in the book I’m currently writing, Two Gun Hart, I have a folder in my computer with the title of the book and the word “Chapters”.  Inside of this folder are 13 folders, each with a title number and name.  The book is being organized by dates, so I put those dates on the folder names.  This makes it MUCH easier for me to know where new information goes.  If I find something that happened in 1933, it goes in the chapter titled “1932-1939”.

I can then bite off smaller chunks at a time.  So when I write chapter 1, I’m thinking only of the information in that chapter.  Everything is made much easier.  The one problem with this is that it causes me to repeat myself in various chapters, or mention something in one chapter, then not follow it up in a next.

This fixed in the next step.  Once all the information has been placed in the appropriate chapters, and each chapter is “written” on its own, I then go through the whole book, reading through every chapter, and making corrections as I go along.  This is when I connect thoughts from one chapter to the next, take out places where I repeat myself, etc.  When this is done, I have a first draft.

The next step is basically going through the book and making corrections the way you would with any story; correcting grammar and making the flow of the story work, making everything clear, improving the way characters are developed, etc.  I call this step smoothing out.

So far, I’ve had two basic types of narrative in my historical books, one I like to call linear, the other I like to call character pieces.

Pro Bono – The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate was a linear book.  The story began with the murders that started the whole incident, then went through the investigation, the preparation of the defense, the first trial, between the trials, the second trial, and on to the appeals.  I broke up the chapters into these parts of the story, putting in everything I knew about the media and the public during the murder spree in one folder, everything I could find about the investigation in the next, the trial transcripts into their respective trials, etc.

The Great Heist was a character piece.  Though there is a linear story, it’s told through describing each character and telling about their part in the story.  I bookended it with the first chapter being the bank robbery, and the last chapter being how it was solved and the wrap up.  I then had a folder with each main character’s name and I put in all the information about that person in that folder.  Since these characters each took part in one aspect of the story, I was also able to divide up the story elements into their names.  For instance, Gus Winkeler was responsible for getting the money back to authorities in Lincoln, Nebraska, so the information about the return of the money went into his folder.  Al Capone was dealing with the mobsters who robbed the bank, so information about the mob went into his folder, etc.

As you go through the book, you get to know the subject matter intimately, so you’ll just know what goes where, even when some things overlap, as they did in The Great Heist where sometimes a couple characters did the same thing.  However you do it, organizing the information is the main part of creating the story.  The next part, smoothing it out, is just as you would with any story, and is really the easy part, in my opinion.

Press Release Distribution

One of the most important tools in the marketing toolbox of independent publishers is the press release through as many channels as possible.  This blog post is not about the press release itself, but rather the distribution of it to as many places as possible.  Other sites that talk about how to make an effective press release include:

http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Press-Release

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-high-impact-press-releases-HA001189558.aspx

I'm not an expert in this field, but I have several experiences, of which I will explain in hopes that it helps others be able to better navigate their own distribution.

The usual method is to distribute the press release through a distribution service.  There are several that are paid subscription services, and several that are free.  Overall, I can really confirm, you get what you pay for.  It's not that the free subscription services are bad or the expensive ones will get you everything you desire, but your odds of getting good coverage definitely go up the more you pay.

There is one service I want to get out of the way right off the bat.  DO NOT USE INEWSWIRE.  IT IS A SCAM.  They will seem convenient and pleasant and will look legitimate until it comes time to actually do something, or more disturbingly, when you decide to stop using their service.  When you try to cancel service, they keep charing your credit card.  When you email them, they do not respond.  When you call them, they do not answer their phones.  It took me several months to cancel my credit card and get a little of my money back.  If you don't catch them doing this, you will continue to be charged every month until you at last cancel your credit card and reset everything.  It's a huge headache.

Okay, now on to the free services.  These are the ones I use:

http://www.pressmethod.com

http://www.webnewswire.com

http://www.prlog.org

http://news.eboomwebsolutions.com/addnews.php

A few of these services have a paid option as well, but they seem to work best in their standard free distribution.  Don’t expect a lot from them, but I think it’s a good idea to send my press release to them because they don’t take a lot of time, and you never know who’s going to get them that might like them.

The paid services that work best are the ones you see the most.

PRWeb ($100 +)

PRWeb is right there at the top.  It sucks to spend $100 or more when no one picks up the story, but at least your odds are the best.  Also, they have a wonderful service that allows you to see how many people are reading the story, and a good analysis on what’s being done with it.  You can also see some of the places where the story’s playing.  They are at:

http://www.prweb.com

PRLeap ($80 - $100)

PRLeap is simple and easy to use, though I had more trouble seeing where my press release was picked up, and how effective it was.  Frankly, I prefer to go the extra few bucks to PRWeb, but if you’re really tight on the budget, or you’re wanting to do a few releases, this might be your best bet.

http://www.prleap.com/

I had INewswire as the third one on here, but like I said, THEY ARE A SCAM.  Stay away from them.  It’s dumb of them, also.  If they were not so seedy, they would be right here on the list as the economical plan, and I would use them as much as I use PRWeb.  In making the quick buck, they’ve lost far more money than they have gained.

Interestingly, the most effective method I’ve had has been simply contacting the news media myself.  This is very time consuming, of course, and rather tiring.  In fact, I switched to online distribution methods for the very reason that it was taking me so long to send it out myself that it was more cost effective to simply pay someone to do it.

However, as I analyzed how many people picked my story up, I found that contacting them directly, especially when I was able to send it to a reporter, editor, or producer by name, I had a lot more luck than when it was sent out through any mass distribution service.

What I do is I create an Excel sheet to keep track of the different places I’m sending it.  On the far left, I list the names of the places, and in the following fields to the right I enter contact information, names, notes, etc.  I then color code them based on the type of media it is.  For instance, I list reviews in purple, radio in blue, newspapers in white, etc.  These are the categories I always do:

Radio

Newspaper

Television

Magazine

Review

Podcast

Blog

I make a list of 50 to 100 places, usually getting their contact information off the internet, specifically Google.

Once I have the list completed, I go down the list, usually picking one color to focus on each day.  I create a form letter that I’m going to send, but then I alter it based on who I’m contacting.  The letter starts the email, and the press release ends it.  As always, never send the press release as an attachment; always put it in the body of the letter after putting ### at the end of the letter.

But the rest of this would belong in a blog about press releases.