Crowdfunding Pro-tips by speculative fiction author C. J. Pitchford

Thanks very much to Chris Pitchford for guesting on my blog today. Chris and I go back a few years, originally meeting in 2012 at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in Denver. It was a wonderful conference, of course made even better by making new writing buddies! Chris has some great info to share on crowdfunding novels as an indie author. Read on.

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Thanks to the wonderful hostess with the mostest, Tammy Salyer, for graciously allowing me to unceremoniously scribble all over her blog. And thanks also to you, dear reader! For what? Read on and find out!

But first I’m going to tell you how this is going to work.You see, a year ago I self-published the first book in my historical fantasy series, The Agility of Clouds. And I was desperate. I had no experience—and worse—no idea how I going to market my darling story of the time-slipping Marchioness of Cambridgeshire.So I tried something new (to me): crowdsourcing the marketing at this site called ‘Kickstarter.’ I signed up, created a project along with a video and—not to put too fine a point on it—went crazy launching my book. The result is still available here.Kickstarter is home to all sorts of projects. And, like the name implies, starts the ball rolling in terms of funding and marketing of said projects, games, books, movies, even 3D printing pens (whatever those are). Funding is used for manufacturing, printing, distribution and postage among other things—but not, apparently, living expenses (as seen here).By now you have probably gotten so over the whole Kickstarter thing (captured in the spirit of the times in this ancient Gawker blog post).But let’s move past the parentheticals and talk about me. Specifically, I had already written a novel. It was done. The illustrator illustrated and the editor edited, and they—along with Bowker and the Library of Congress—had all been paid. I formatted the work, wrapped it up in a pretty cover and even got a wonderful blurb from a lovely and talented author. Because it was all done, I didn’t need a starter, but I wanted—desperately, remember—to crowdsource the marketing. I needed to get new ideas, and sought the wisdom of the crowd to learn where I should focus my limited advertising budget.And by that criteria, I failed utterly.Oh, sure. The modest Kickstarter—or, kicklauncher, as I called it—was successfully funded. But no one knows how to independently market new books online. I’m sure you know, regardless of which market, that the fundamentals still and probably always will apply. ‘Word of mouth’ advertising is king and queen; you must keep on your toes by networking; and, my favorite of all fundamentals is pure marketingsauce, ‘fake it ’til you make it.’ But in my Kickstarter, there was no magic or special sauce, and the pursuit of online Virality™ is both ongoing and a neologism.Before I write another word about crowdfunding I must warn you—money is involved. I know. The jaded intelligentsia can just skip this paragraph, of course. For the rest of us? Please don’t do anything online you don’t feel comfortable doing. Also, educate yourself! There are some terrible ideas out there—if someone is promising something that breaks the laws of physics, it’s probably a scam. I mean, I can break the laws of physics all the time—in my stories when I’m writing, that is. But here are some of the worst ideas. (For an overview of criticism about the Kickstarter concept, check out this.)Do you see where I’m going with this? Because I’m a writer, and therefore by definition, a glutton for punishment, I’m doing it all again. I’m crowdfunding my newest book, an adult sci-fi novel where an asteroid miner survives galactic civil war using the life lessons of politically incorrect comic characters, Gung Ho and Little Pluck.But this one’s different. And by different I don’t mean just a different genre and style. I’m trying a site called Inkshares, which does more than just funnel money (although I suppose it does that, too). The website only supports projects that result in books, and actually publishes projects that are successfully funded. I created a project and entered it into The Nerdist Collection Competition, where the top five projects—ranked by number of pre-orders—will be published whether they are funded successfully or not.Here’s the link and I want to thank you for reading, and for checking out my latest attempt at marketing! See? This is how crowdsourcing works—I think. Let me know in the comments below!About the author: C. J. Pitchford (go ahead and call him ‘Chris’—just don’t call him during dinner, it’s a blood sugar thing) lives in Denver, Colorado and once tried to save the world using an almost magical ability to program computers, phones and tablets. He is also the author of the paranormal historical fantasy series, THE HELLEBORINE CHRONICLES, available on Amazon and iTunes.

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I Have a Story On the Moon, aka, Luna Station Quarterly

Greetings Blogolotticans!Just a quick announcement that I have a new-slash-old story out in print today with the intrepid Luna Station Quarterly magazine. The story, "Indulgence," was originally released in my four twisted tales of love and lust collection, On Hearts and Scorpions, back in 2012 (the first collection I ever indie published, as a matter of fact. How special! This is the third story in the collection that has also been published in other literary mags. Yay me!). Now, here it is in all its glory with LSQ, a speculative fiction magazine featuring stories by emerging women authors.And even more exciting, this is their first ever printed volume, so they're offering a a ten percent discount. Get more info here, and don't miss out on these fun new stories by some more badass authors. You can also buy direct from Amazon.If you pick up the magazine and enjoy "Indulgence," don't hesitate to let me know. I'll even send you a free review copy of On Hearts on Scorpions. How's that for helping you stock up on reading material?Cheers and happy reading!

Self-Publishing Paths: Week 5, Editing & Cover Design

G'morning Blogitons! Please join Susan Spann and I on Spann of Time for the continuation of the self-publishing series. This week we look at the second most essential component of publishing a novel, the presentation. This includes editing, proofreading, and cover design. Thanks to all who've commented how much you've enjoyed this series so far. Next week will be the final post and discusses the juggernaut of marketing. Take care!

Sometimes, most of the time even, new authors are consumed by and utterly immersed in their first few writing projects, often to the point of having absolutely no brain cells left over for any other creative or “businessy” endeavors. I’ve been there; I understand it. Nothing is more exciting to a writer than the story you are bringing to life.Somewhere along this creative journey, however, new authors generally come to a decision about whether they will publish or simply allow their novel to be extant. It’s a question of public attention and acknowledgment vs. personal satisfaction and self-acknowledgment. (Here’s a little something I wrote on the subject of why we write that talks more about this public vs. personal dialectic). Once an author makes their choice, it’s time to get serious about carving out the time to include all those ancillary steps to the actual writing that will lead to your finished—and publishable, if that’s your goal—novel. Continue here.

Full Series Posts:Week 1: Research. An overview and comparison of the self- vs. traditional-publishing paradigms.Week 2: Business Plans. What an author needs to know to create and adhere to business plans and deadlines.Week 3: Distributing Your Novel. The general considerations regarding distribution sites.Week 4: Creating eBooks. Details to consider in regard to ebook creation, and why and how to do it.Week 6: Marketing & Promotion.

Self-Publishing Paths: Week 3, Distribution

Hello Blogdrodites! Welcome to the third week of my guest post series on the many considerations of self-publishing. Please join me at (world's coolest) mystery author Susan Spann's blog, Spann of Time, to learn about the things to consider when choosing your distribution sites. You may also want to visit this older post of mine that has a more concrete (though dated) look at the many options. Thanks to the many who have stopped by to peruse these posts. I hope you're enjoying them and getting some good tips. Cheers!

There are two kinds of people in the world (outside of those who write and those who don’t), and they are those who obsess about the details and those who think of details as esoteric thought experiments that have little bearing on the obviously more important process of writing the next novel. But here’s the thing, and it bears repeating once again: Treat your writing like a passion, but treat your novel like a business. In a successful business model, the details are what matter the most. Continue here.

Full Series Posts:Week 1: Research. An overview and comparison of the self- vs. traditional-publishing paradigms.Week 2: Business Plans. What an author needs to know to create and adhere to business plans and deadlines.Week 4: Creating eBooks. Details to consider in regard to ebook creation, and why and how to do it.Week 5: Plan ahead to hire an editor, proofreader, and cover designer. At minimum, start looking six months before you plan to publish.Week 6: Marketing and Promotion.

Self-Publishing Paths: Week 2, Business Plans

G'day Bloggorites. Please join me and mystery author Susan Spann at Spann of Time today where I discuss the ins and outs and steps to take for creating a self-published author's business plan. This post is the second in a series on all of the facets of self-publishing. Visit week 1's post on research and identifying your goals and intents here. Here's a short preview:

Being in independently published author is extremely time intensive. Knowing that going in is the first consideration you need to include when evaluating your trajectory and goals. Much as you may outline your novel—with plot arcs, story goals, and finale outcomes—think of your business plan as the outline to your writing career. The following are the three universal steps (as I see them) to accomplish this.1. Set realistic goals.The fact is, brand new unknown authors cannot expect to hit the publish button and sell hundreds of books overnight, even if they hire a publicist. The number one way people sell books is through word of mouth, and if your book hasn't yet been read by anyone, there's no one to spread the word on how fabulous it is. But that's okay, as indie fantasy author K. Scott Lewis describes it, becoming a success is a marathon, not a sprint. Continue.

Full Series Posts:Week 1: Research. An overview and comparison of the self- vs. traditional-publishing paradigms.Week 3: Distributing Your Novel. The general considerations regarding distribution sites.Week 4: Creating eBooks. Details to consider in regard to ebook creation, and why and how to do it.Week 5: Plan ahead to hire an editor, proofreader, and cover designer. At minimum, start looking six months before you plan to publish.Week 6: Marketing and Promotion.

Self-Publishing Paths: Week 1, Research

G'day Blogtasticans. Join myself and fellow author Susan Spann at Spann of Time today where I'm discussing the many nuances of self-publishing. This is a six-week long series, and week one covers the wheretofors and whathaveyous of choosing the self-pubbing path. Thanks, Susan, for having me!A sneak peek:

Isaac Asimov said, “Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” And that is the first thing you must do in order to fly your indie flag at its grandest height. Researching and learning the business from both the traditional and the independent or self-publishing perspective is the essential ingredient to making the best choices for your own writing career. Each person must decide for themself what fork in the path they want to take in regard to going trad or indie, but to make a good decision, you must be as informed as possible about what you’re gaining and/or losing in either choice. Continued here.

Full Series Posts:Week 2: Business Plans. What an author needs to know to create and adhere to business plans and deadlines.Week 3: Distributing Your Novel. The general considerations regarding distribution sites.Week 4: Creating eBooks. Details to consider in regard to ebook creation, and why and how to do it.Week 5: Plan ahead to hire an editor, proofreader, and cover designer. At minimum, start looking six months before you plan to publish.Week 6: Marketing and Promotion.

The Domino's Pizza Approach: Promote Your Book in 30 Minutes or Less

For many indie authors, marketing and self-promotion, I think, can make our guts squirm like too many dyspeptic squid inside a fishbowl. For some it is merely daunting, for others it is a billboard-sized map without a legend or north arrow and written in a language we don’t speak. We all know there is a ton to do, but few of us have a game plan for how to do it, and even fewer of us have much desire to cut into our valuable and hard-fought-for writing time to actually make it happen.Remember when you were a kid and the only way to get through a horrible side dish that your parent prepared was by cutting it into the smallest bites possible so that you could swallow it without it ever touching your tongue? That is the same approach you can take to marketing and self-promotion. Small, digestible chunks that require minimal exposure.Below I have compiled a list of small bites for the discerning and finicky palettes of non-marketing-oriented writers. Putting in a half hour a day to tackle each is an easy and mostly painless strategy for plugging your books. I can’t guarantee you that each will net you the kind of exposure and sales you’re hoping for, but the aggregate of each day’s efforts will certainly get you farther down that path than the familiar comfort of procrastination.

List of Marketing and Promotion Tools for the Indie Author

• Hone your elevator pitch.

• Search for upcoming writer’s conferences to attend. I’ve participated and thoroughly enjoyed both the Willamette Writers Conference and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference, but there are gads more. Conferences are a superb way of meeting like-minded people, making wonderful friends, and connecting with others in the industry from whom you can learn.

• Write a template for making a book review request. Remember to customize this for each individual person you’ll make a request to. Here’s a good starting place on Stephanie Loree’s blog. And another article on Amazon.

• Search for a book reviewer on Twitter, Wordpress, Blogger, or Amazon, then send them your request. Here are my Twitter lists of reviewers. List one. List two.

• Enter a contest. Here are just a few. (Note: I’m not endorsing any of these as I’m not familiar with all of them. Just food for thought.)

1. The National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

2. The Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Contest (my favorite because my first novel, Contract of Defiance, was a finalist last year, and my second, Contract of Betrayal, was just announced as a semi-finalist today).

3. A list from the San Francisco Book Review.

4. The Best Indie Book Award.

5. Indie Reader Discovery Award.

• Step one: Join Unbound, Pubslush, or Kickstarter to raise money and hire a PR manager. Unbound and Pubslush are like Kickstarter, but for writers only.

• Step two: Write/develop an Unbound pitch and/or Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for hiring a PR manager.

• Enter your books (if they are science fiction), on ScifiKindle for some free social networking promotion.

• Send a personal tweet on Twitter to fans of your genre. Make requests of your writer friends to tweet your book.

• Create a letter to successful writers in your genre to request a book blurb/endorsement. Remember to customize this for each individual person you’ll send your request to.

• Search for writers in your genre (if you don’t already have a list), and send them your personalized request.

• Update your LinkedIn profile with your publications, and search the site for promotional groups to learn how others are doing it and gain/give support. Here’s my LinkedIn profile.

• Make book cards/coupons to give away whenever the opportunity presents itself. Try Livrada, Greenerside Digital, or review this list at MediaBistro.

• Join message boards of fans in your genre to engage and, when the time is right, introduce your books.

• Update your blog with a new post about what you’re working on.

• Create an email newsletter. Molly Greene has a few excellent posts about this on her blog. And here's another from author Steena Holmes on the Writers in the Storm blog.

• Design a contest or giveaway that focuses on increasing your readership and find a date on your calendar to run it.

• Invite writer friends to join a blog hop.

• Suggest writing a guest post for someone else who's blog you follow or relates to your genre.

• Submit a book to BookBub or StoryBundle.

• Find out how to organize a book reading at your local library, bohemian coffee shop, or bookstore.

• Create bookmarks or business cards to promote your book.

• Search for Facebook groups where authors are free to plug their books, then plug yours. And create a Facebook page.

• Join Goodreads and list your books.

And this is just for starters. Navigating the promo planet is tricky, but not impossible, and every small step forward will eventually lead you to your destination. If you’re also an indie author, please feel free to share your wisdom. What other methods and techniques have you tried? What’s worked and what hasn’t?Here's another great post on the subject over at David Gaughran's blog.

5 Self-Publishing Mistakes I Made Last Year

G'day dear readers. Join Molly Greene, author of the recently released top-seller Blog It! The author's guide to building a successful online brand, and me on her blog today where I'll discuss five easily avoided mistakes I made last year as an independently published author and ways to avoid doing these yourself. My greatest hope is that my experiences can be chalked up to taking one (or five) for the team. A sneak peek:

The term "indie writer" is a misnomer. Why? Because, as we all know, once you cover your keyboard for the day, your work is only 1/10 finished. Making the conscious effort to become an indie writer also means taking on the challenge of becoming your own marketer, publisher, art director, editor, and numerous other variations on these. Along with learning the ins-and-outs of, well, EVERYTHING, we inevitably make mistakes. Today, I'll share a few that I made or almost made in 2012 that I have all good intentions of avoiding this year.1. Failing to do due diligence. > Prior to the release of my second Spectras Arise novel, Contract of Betrayal, last month, I decided to hire a new artist to revamp my first book's cover and create the second's. Failing to take my own advice when I last guest posted for Molly and ask around for recommendations from friends and colleagues, I found another author's post that linked to a number of artists (though didn't specifically endorse any). Long story short, I picked an artist whose work matched my own creative vision and hired them. After they failed to meet the terms of our agreement, I started poking around the web and discovered that several others had experienced what I was going through. The good news is, Paypal, which I had used to pay the artist, has very clear grievance and claims processes. Upon calling on these, I was able to resolve the issue without any loss of money, and only minimal loss of time. The big takeaways from this experience are: Don't pick a name of out of a hat; rely on word of mouth and seek out experts to engage and learn from. Paypal is your friend. And use Kindle Boards to assist your research.Continue here for more.

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All content copyright unless otherwise specified © 2008-2013 by Tammy Salyer, writer. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use short quotes provided proper attribution is given.