Bob Mayer's 9 Keys to Indie Publishing Success

1. The best promotion is a good book. The next best promotion is more good books. I’ve got over 30 titles uploaded with six more to go. I had a new book coming out last month, The Jefferson Allegiance, and then will be pushing forward several of my series and starting a new one.

2. Know what your platform is, especially in social media. My blog, Write It Forward, is designed to be an advocate for authors and readers.

3. However, for a new author, write more books before worrying about putting a lot of time into promotion. There’s nothing wrong putting a first book up, but remember, most traditionally published authors didn’t sell until manuscript 2, 3 or 4. So don’t worry about sales on that first book. Don’t waste time promoting. Wait until you have three books published, then start pushing the promotion. Have patience. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The authors who will succeed are the ones who are looking three to five years ahead and not worried about what they sold today on Kindle.

4. The next point is this: don’t let emotion make your decisions. We all have strong feelings about books and writing and bookstores, etc. That’s fine. Put them in a box. Focus on reality. This is a business. Numbers rule, not emotions. If you want to succeed in the new world of publishing, you have to deal in reality. I recently had a romance editor at a major house tell me they were following the technology and I was rather stunned by that. One of the keys to our success in the Green Berets was to act rather than react. Starting my own publishing company two years ago has allowed me to be ahead of most of the changes and to build. We went from selling 347 eBooks in January of 2011 to 100,000 monthly.

5. Pricing. It’s the key advantage I have over a traditional publisher. All our books at Who Dares Wins Publishing are between $2.99 and $4.99. We have two titles at .99. Regardless of what you feel about the .99 price point there is absolutely no doubt there are many people who troll for books at that price. We view them as hooks—Atlantis at .99 is the hook to get people to read my science fiction; Eyes of the Hammer at .99 is the hook to get people to read my thrillers. Pricing has allowed me to have two of the top ten titles in science fiction on US Kindle, UK Kindle and Nook for months now. I’m not even considered a science fiction author. But my Area 51 and Atlantis series are good, priced reasonably, and have covers that . . .

6.   Different than regular print covers.


7. Develop a process as a writer (I discuss this in The Novel Writers Toolkit) that you constantly refine and improve upon. Write this process down and update it every so often.


8. Lastly, understand that if you want a career as an indie (or even traditional) author, you are running a business in the world of publishing. I took all I’ve learned over 20 years of traditional publishing and 2 years of indie publishing and put it into Write It Forward: From Writer to Successful Author because there is no ‘training program’ for authors on the business side. Stay up to date on what’s going on.

9. Lastly, lastly, it’s the most exciting time to be a writer. You have more opportunities than ever before. All the best to everyone!

Like Peppermint Eaten Away

"Will I fight, will I swagger or sway?"
Lyrics from a good song are always great to reflect on...and right about now I want to indicate that RTG hasn't had to do any of the aforementioned. It hasn't had to fight to keep readers reading. It hasn't swaggered or swayed (although I am guilty of waiting til the last minute to post, but that has everything to do with the writer in me rather than the blog itself!).

Six months running, RTG has definitely kept me going strong. Have I swaggered or swayed in my dedication to the romance genre? No. If anything, because of this blog, I have striven to stay on track more so than ever before.

Because it gives me a checkpoint every month. There are a few of us *wink wink* that have heard the term 'LIFE HAPPENS,' and LIFE is definitely something that we have in common. But it helps to have something to go back to, to relieve us of our fictional worlds that we've created in the recesses of our minds.

Like a 'peppermint eaten away,' blogging helps the writer briefly express things that keep them fresh, vibrant. Grounds them by connecting them with the outside world. Why blog? To add perspective. Why else would fiction writers stay so consistent? Every now and then we need to write something that is of this world, of this time and place. Possibly contribute to our writing communities by discussing the topics that concern and conflict or even trouble us all.

And as a good friend told me one time, "It's important to keep an attitude of gratitude, Courtney."
So I thank RTG, Judith and Sarah, and all my fellow bloggers (and of course you readers!) in this month's celebration of a quality piece of modern communication...i.e. The Blog. Like peppermint, I do believe RTG's flavor will increase with time, as it sweetens readers' senses with fresh new voices every day.

Six months strong

If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you’ll know I always post a disclaimer that I’m really not much of a blogger. It’s not that I don’t want to blog, it’s that I’m not sure I’ll come up with anything entertaining. So, when Judith sent out invites to fill a monthly spot here at RTG, I decided to go for it. I figured, ‘hey, I can do once a month, no problem.’ And, so far I have….but not without wracking my brain for an article that won’t have your eyes glazing over. Granted, they gave us a topic to blog about each month, which is helpful, but still, it’s not that easy to come up with something entertaining.

This month RTG is celebrating it’s six month anniversary…go RTG!! Which means, I’ve been blogging for six months and so far I haven’t driven you away. Haha
Now, since it’s our party, I can blog what I want to.

A couple of weeks ago my first full-length novel went on sale—online—at Decadent Publishing. This novel, FORGET ME NOT, was a true labor of love. I wrote it 8 years ago…yes you saw correctly, 8 years. Some people call me crazy, some say I’m persistent…me, I just say I’m stubborn. I believed in this book from day one…maybe because it was my first ever completed novel and I refused to give up on it. I went through two agents and one and a half editors and over two dozen rejections before it finally landed on the ‘right’ desk, and even then I still had some revising to do. But, I didn’t mind, it’s par for the course. I consider myself a perfectionist, if I’m going to do something I’m going to do it right or keep doing it until I get it right. I’m like that with my blogs too, which is why it can take me up to a week to write one. Haha

So, tell me, what is it you’ve felt so passionate about that you couldn’t give up until you got it right?

As an aside, one commenter will win a copy of my e-book.

My Favorite Time of the Year

My Favorite Time of the Year
By Laura Baumbach

The Holiday season, especially Christmas themes set in a snowy area, is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the drifts of white, undisturbed snow, the crisp, cool air, the smell of chocolate and cinnamon in the room, the beautiful music playing in homes and shops alike and the general feeling of contentment and well being the season brings to a lot of people, including me. I’m an East Coast girl and the coming of the holidays means chilly weather, soft sweaters and more time spent at home with family and friends. The holidays bring with them a sense of love and appreciation for life.
So it’s no surprise that Holiday romance reads are one of my favorite. They blend the cheer and emotion of the season with love and romance. I like to write them and I like to read them.
One of my favorite stories is a little free read written by ZA Maxfield titled THE CURSED NOEL. You can find it on her website here: http://zamaxfield.com/freebies/the-cursed-noel/
It’s humorous, emotional, a slice of reality, romantic in a manly way, *g*, just a little bit of holiday comfort and love. ZAM’s writing skill is superb. She sets a scene so well you can see every shade of color of the characters’ emotions. You feel their joy and their pain. The story is short but the author has the talent to give you a fully satisfying tale and bring out the true spirit of the holiday season in a wonderful, short vignette. It made me feel comforted and hopeful, like a holiday story should.

The Lost Arts; Food for a Year

by Tam Linsey

When I go to a party, I inevitably find myself surrounded by people who are intrigued by what I do. Not my writing (they are interested in that, too, but their eyes glaze over if I branch into plot points or characterization) but my other activities.

I am obsessed with food.

Growing, gathering, and preserving food.

Self-sufficiency.

That's a tall order for someone living in Alaska. Yet also a necessity, I think. We ship in over 90% of our food and other everyday supplies. If there were ever a worldwide - or even nationwide - catastrophe, the population up here could be in trouble. Several years back, an avalanche closed the road to Girdwood, a ski resort only a few miles north of Anchorage. This road is also the only road connecting Southcentral Alaska to the rest of the state. With no port, and bad weather keeping planes from flying, thousands of people trapped there were running out of food and fuel. Crews worked desperately to clear the highway, and luckily no one starved, but it was eye-opening.

The event was a microcosm for the entire state of Alaska.

Wall o' water around a zucchini plant

I raise as many vegetables as I can in our short summer. We officially have 75 growing days in my area, and are lucky if we hit eighty degrees even one day during a season. So cool weather crops do best, although I've been known to attempt corn and pole beans using season extenders. The broccoli in the freezer will last us the year, along with peas, Swiss chard, onions, carrots, potatoes, etc.

Seedlings  - yes, that is 2 feet of snow outside!

I start all my seedlings in the house in March, and use a greenhouse to grow tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers.

Kiwi fruit

I also have an orchard with apples and cherries I grafted myself, and a huge trellis of hardy kiwi vines (yes, you CAN grow fruit in Alaska!) I have a couple of experimental pear trees from the former Soviet Union seedling project, as well, but they have yet to produce fruit. And we love to go pick the wild berries growing all over the state.

An assortment of jarred foods

I make beer, cider, jam, tomato sauce, fermented pickles and sauerkraut. You name it, I may have tried to make it.

This past year, my son raised three hogs and a steer, which we butchered ourselves two weeks ago. Our two chest freezers are blessedly full. In the past, we’ve filled our freezer with everything from moose, to caribou, to mountain goat. Plus dozens of salmon we dip-net out of the Kenai River every year.

The Kenai River dip-net line

To me, this stuff is just ... everyday life. But people want to talk about it. Long past my husband's "wink-wink, nod-nod" that it is time to leave the party.

What do you find yourself talking about at a party?

© Tam Linsey, 2011. All rights reserved.

Blog Tours

Last month, Shadowman, the third book in my Shadow series, released. To get the word out and let readers know a little bit about the book, I went on a blog tour. When all was said and done, I blogged over twenty times during the month, including here at RTG. It just so happened that I was on deadline for my next book at the same time, so I would spend my day writing Fire Kissed, my nights writing blogs.

I knew from past blog tours to prepare in advance. Here are some basic pointers for authors just setting out:

1. While writing your book, make a note of blog topics. That list will be crucial when it’s time to promote and you can’t think of a thing to write about. Research topics, funny stories, games—it’s all good.


2. Start setting up the blog tour a couple months early. If possible, get a review copy of your book to the blogger—and as early as you can. (I’m probably going to go with a blog tour service the next time around as this takes time to coordinate.)


3. My experience is that weekend dates have less traffic than weekdays. I know now to give myself those days off to refuel and catch-up.


4. Aim for a good balance of article-style posts, interviews, and excerpts. (Or mix it up with first person interviews of your characters, either/or posts, etc.) Save some of your most fun ideas for the end.


5. Don’t post the same blog on different sites. Try to create new content for each one.


6. Don’t double book tour stops on the same date.


7. Do giveaways. They give readers a reason to comment. Specify whether the contest is international or not. My first blog tour had packages going to Indonesia, England, and Mexico all in the same week.


8. Make giveaway questions easy and fun. And put the contest announcement up top to help hook readers.


9. Be careful about the length of blogs and excerpts. Too long and you lose the reader's interest.


10. Include your cover and other graphics.

I hope this list helps. It is by no means exhaustive and I invite everyone to add more to the comments below or share their insights.

Happy blogging!