Category: self-publishing

Well, all right, it was a Zoom call rather than a movie, but over the past couple of weeks I’ve definitely had some adventures—in Self-Publishing, and PowerPoint production.

Adventures in Self-Publishing

I wrote here about how I love learning new things. When Marilyn Pemberton, Chair of the Monmouthshire chapter of the Society of Authors visited the Marcher Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, she asked if I and Joanna Maitland would like to talk to the Society of Authors about our experiences as self-publishers. Joanna is a past master at the art, I’m a raw recruit as you can see here.

Joanna and I put our heads together and came up with a short PowerPoint presentation. This introduced each of us to the viewers and then set out my experiences as a newbie, and Joanna’s advice for a successful transition from backlist title to new release.

Point and Shoot

I’ve only made one Powerpoint presentation before. That was when I was at university as a mature student (see here for more about that). I’d forgotten everything I’d learned, so it was a slow process trying to recall it all. Despite that (or perhaps because of it) I really enjoyed putting my part of the presentation together. Now I’m looking round for an excuse to do another one! One bit I was particularly proud of was the shot of the new business cards I designed and produced ahead of my launch. It shocked me to discover that the QR code on the back of my cards actually worked when it appeared on screen during our presentation. If you’ve got a QR reader on your phone, I’d be interested to see if it works for you on here!

Links

Joanna has written many blogs about self-publishing on the Libertà website. She went into detail about how to work with a book cover designer, how to set up the front matter of your book and what to include in the back matter, such as your coming self-published attractions. Joanna has written many blogs about her work as a publisher and designer on the Libertà website. There’s a search facility on that site, so you can check out whichever aspect of self-publishing you’d like to read about.

My Own Adventures in Self Publishing

I introduced myself with details of my non-fiction and fiction writing. Then I went on to explain how I had joined the Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) several years ago. Every time the subscription went out of my bank account, I’d think, “‘I must do something about self-publishing!” but time went on and I never did. This January 1st, I decided things would change. I made a New Year’s Resolution to either self-publish something this year, or forget the whole idea.

Order Early

I explained how everything about self-publishing, from buying ISBNs (International Standard Book Number), to getting your book included in the British Library’s Cataloguing In Publication programme has to be planned well in advance. I had written the original version of Royal Passion in a Word document with all kinds of styles. As I was going to format the document for self-publishing using Vellum, I had to strip out all that formatting to produce a clean copy.

Next Steps

I explained about getting a bright new cover here. Then I had to devise a copyright notice to go in the front of the book. At the back, there’s an extract of the next book in my Royal Romances series, Royal Risk, and a link so that readers can subscribe to my newsletter. That was when I found out about Reader Magnets. They are a little ‘thank you’ sent out to people who subscribe to my newsletter. That meant writing a seven-thousand word prequel to the whole Royal Romances series. There are five short stories, showing all the characters in the series as they were before the main books in the series open. I treated writing and self-publishing Royal Rivals as a dry-run for publishing Royal Passion.

Coming Soon!

I’ll be sending out my August newsletter soon. As well as more behind-the-scenes details about the Zoom chat, there will be a seasonal recipe, and details of how to enter a draw where the prize is the chance to read an advance copy of Royal Passion. Sign up for my newsletter here!

My adventures in self-publishing now see me taking on the challenge of learning new skills.

First of all, I had to check which of my books I am able to publish. That sounds odd—surely as I wrote them, I ought to be able to do what I like with my books? I can, but only when the rights to any previously published work has legally reverted to me. 

My Princes of Kharova series is currently out of print. I love writing, but it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to write one book, let alone a trilogy. It seemed a shame to have His Majesty’s Secret Passion, Her Royal Risk and Heart of a Hostage gathering virtual dust on my computer. Publishing them myself will do two things.  It will give a whole new audience a chance to fall in love with my exotic heroes Leo, Athan, and Mihail. I’ll also be taking on the challenge of learning a whole new set of skills.

The first of these new skills is patience. Combing through each manuscript takes ages and a lot of concentration. There’s always a better way of wording something. I’ve also been updating some details within my stories. Technology is changing all the time. The cyber cafés I wrote about in 2015 are now internet cafés—and they are full of gamers! Phones are miles better today than they were back then, too. 

I find it easier to work through one chapter of my books at a time and then take a break. In an ideal world, I would set aside a week or two and do nothing else but work on perfecting each manuscript, but life isn’t like that! There’s the family to feed, the house to run, and Alex to walk at least twice a day. Not to mention all the fruit that needs picking and processing at this time of year. And of course, the weeds are running riot! I’m also a Reader for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writer’s Scheme. This involves reading submissions and writing a report to help and encourage authors in their work.  That takes all my attention and often involves an element of research online to check details too.

I took notes of the settings and characteristics of each hero and heroine of my books so I could provide an art sheet for my cover designer, Joanna Maitland of Libertà Books. Joanna has extensive experience of self-publishing and understands the importance of book covers in today’s market.

Any cover must have an immediate impact in the thumbnail size used online. Covers are visible shorthand for the reader. It must tell them the book’s genre in one glance.

This is why all books within a genre have broadly similar covers. Romcoms use silhouettes or have cartoon-like covers, while World War Two family sagas have a photograph of a woman or women in period-correct clothes superimposed on a 1940s backdrop with planes overhead, and so on.

I gave Joanna copies of my books along with art sheets so she could create a unified visual experience for the series. Each art sheet included the setting of one particular book and every possible detail of its hero and heroine, from their height, age, and colouring to the clothes they wear.

Covers for escapist contemporary romances like Royal Passion feature a hero and heroine against a background related to the story.  A luxury hotel on a fictional Greek Island serves as the setting for Royal Passion. Classically tall, dark and handsome Leo became king of Kharova after the death of his brother. He doesn’t want the job and had to give up his medical studies to take on the role. His stay at The Paradise Hotel is a short period of freedom before his life becomes tied up in protocol and matters of state. Tense, anxious Sara is recovering from a broken heart and a health scare. Leo and Sara want very different things. He dreads his destiny, while she can’t escape her past. Can their passion free them to share a future?

That was the brief. Here’s the finished cover:

Learning the new skills needed to become a self-publisher is a challenge, but it’s been well worth it so far. You can find out more about me here, and see some of my books here.

I’d love to know what you think about the cover of Royal Passion—why not post a comment?