Where I Have Been...And What I Have Done

Okay, I admit it, blogging has taken a back seat to doing what I have been blogging about.

Whew.  I have ALL my books (7) now up and SELLING on Kindle, Nook, and iPad with Kobo in the works.  Kobo is a bit daunting, but we are working on it. 

Kindle was the most seamless and they are grinding out the sales.  Even better, both Kindle and iPad have sent royalties directly to my bank account at at 70% on Kindle (US sales) they add up quickly.

I figure that at this rate (which is growing incrementally), my cash outlay to get the books out there will have been paid back in 3 months or so.  And, unlike many industries, I doubt there is a huge holiday increase because in a sense you are buying for yourself...although Kindle does seem to have a unique idea: letting you buy gift ebooks for friends.

Next mission is to write up all about how to do it and post some of it here and MOST of it in a new book, that is a new ebook to be called: Take Back the Book. 

The Perfect E-mail

I've been so busy preparing books for various e-platforms that I have neglected his blog.  Also, other authors are emailing asking the details of how I am doing this.  I promise I will list the steps on this blog--and in Take Back theBook the book, coming whenever I have the time to write it all up.

In the meantime, I received an uplifting email from someone teaching a class where she recommends my book I Speak for this Child.   At the end of the class, a guy came up to her and agreed that it was a terrific book.  She asked, "Have you read it?"  

He replied, "Only the first chapter.  I downloaded it on my iPad during the class and read it during the break."

 

How's that for instant gratification?

Oh...and preliminary info on the 4 books that are up: they are selling!  No promotion yet.  So, it is starting to work.

No More Pencils...No More BOOKS...

A high school in Florida ditches textbooks for Kindles.  That's right, everybody gets an e-book device free!  No more lugging textbooks or excuses for leaving them in the locker or at home.

Backwards Publishing: Books to Type

Three more novels being uploaded this weekend including my major bestsellers The Midwife, The Midwife’s Advice, and Code Ezra. I will explain how I got to this point shortly, but for now these are books that were published almost pre-computer! In fact, The Midwife was one of the first novels ever written on a word processor (IBM System 6). Since I had no digital version of the edited work, I searched for a way to convert print to type without creating endless typos and requiring word-for-word proofing.

My books are long, take place in foreign locales, and I did not want to undertake anything that would drive me insane.

I was told retyping the book would cost about $2000 per book, then there would be conversion costs to the various e-book formats. My next thought was to outsource the project for typing, but I worried about the proofing problem. It took about 10 minutes of Googling to find some likely outsourcing companies. They swore that the latest in Optical Character Reader technology (OCR) would work out fine and that they would do the proofing. I sent PDF files of sample pages with complex formatting. One of the company’s work was more accurate and their price more reasonable.

This is the one I am using. Ask for details.

This is not as seamless a process as I dreamed about, but also not particularly onerous either.

Details will follow and I will name names.

First Book Now iPublished on Amazon, iPad

Done! First book is up and running on both Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad (iBookstore). I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate is still widely used for Guardian ad Litem (CASA) training and I wanted it out there first.

I was able to update it with what happened to all the children featured in the book, add a new chapter that my publisher cut for space reasons, include an interview with the author, a guide for book clubs, an author bio. In many ways it is vastly improved. Plus, I can continue to update it.

I have one book ready to upload, one being converted to the e-book formats, and another just sent out for converting. I cannot believe that the spell checker on Code Ezra found so many spelling errors in the original hardcover book! Didn’t the publisher check those typos? Or was the copyeditor or…ah…the author supposed to have found them all?

Again, mistakes can be fixed forever. Is that a promise or a curse?

The Oberon Kindle Cover

Although there are more practical e-book covers, like the one with the embedded light, I find my Oberon so beautiful, so tactile and satisfying.

From Tall Ship to Cruise Ship

At first it was rare to see a Kindle sighting--sort of like a Prius sighting when I first got mine 6 years ago. (That early adopter thing again.) There would be that knowing nod and polite questions about what someone was reading. (With the Prius their nods would be followed by mpg inquiries.) Tips would be passed back and forth. We were cognoscenti. Since I live in a rural area, I really only saw Kindles when I traveled. Another one on an airplane was normal at first, then in the past year I started to see many—with flyers comparing Kindle 1s, 2s, and the jumbo DXs. I haven’t yet seen a Kindle 3 in the wild or even a Nook or Sony e-reader but iPads are sprouting everywhere.

In June were on the maiden voyage of the Norwegian Cruise Lines’s gargantuan cruise ship EPIC from Southampton to New York. Most passengers understood we were the guinea pigs for this jumbo liner and patiently waited in queues to board, get information, for shows, and more. No problem. Everyone whipped out their e-readers which led to more comparisons, and yes, impromptu discussion on books. We showed off and praised various jackets—with Oberon’s stunning tooled leather designs winning my vote (and one was my next purchase.) One woman had a Kindle 2 and just had bought an iPad so her daughter could get through her summer reading list. On a foggy afternoon, I toured some of the indoor lounges and was heartened by the number of readers, with about half using e-readers. Of course, this was an affluent crowd who liked to be the first to sail on a ship so it was likely they also were in the early adopter cohort. It was an international crowd—although I never met anyone besides an American with an e-reader. However the Brits and Canadians were very curious and delighted to learn that they could get one too.

Certainly they were an influential bunch who I would expect would broaden the e-reader base. In any case, it was lovely to see so many avid readers in one sailing off into the sunset—literally.

The Taint of Publish by Self

The place was Alice Waters's Chez Panisse. My cousin Ronna had asked a Big Favor and my payment was dinner there. Jack, another cousin, was invited to join us. While having a drink before being seated in the dining room, Jack met a friend with the same last name as his They had joked that they were cousins.

“Steve,” Jack said. “Come meet my real cousin, Gay Courter. She’s in publishing too.

Steve explained he was with a West Coast book distributor. “What do you do?”

“I’m a writer.”

Steve arched his eyebrows. “Oh, self-published?”

I gulped. I had never been asked this before and searched for the right quip—and quips are not my strong suit. “Ah, how many self-published books ever get to the New York Times Bestseller List?”

Jack laughed nervously. “Gay is my famous cousin.”

Lucky for Steve, his table was called. I elbowed Jack. “Hardly famous kiddo, but that guy was rude.”

“A pompous jerk,” Ronna added.

Okay, I’ll admit to being miffed. and also a feeling superior to most self-published authors—although a few have broken through to not only sell millions but be bought up by major publishing companies. (I will also to admit to having publishing fantasies as an aspiring-writer teen when I saw those come-hither ads in the back of intellectual magazines shouting: Authors Wanted.

At times I have suggested self-publishing when someone wants to preserve his life story for future generations and self-publishing has other worthy purposes. But this site is meant more for previously published authors who want to put their older work--and new material--in digital format.

Reading on the Tall Ship Kruzenschtern

Off the coast of Brest, Brittany, France

My First Kindle

I bought my first Kindle to take on a trip to Europe. I needed at least 6 or 8 books for the trip, right? Like Julia Child's My Life in France since I was going to be in Provence and David Sedaris's When You Are Engulfed in Flames to keep me amused in airports, not to mention the Ken Follett's big fat World Without End for Gothic cathedral immersion therapy. And more in case my mind wandered or I was stranded somewhere. A library in my backpack was a dream come true.

iPublishing: Staking the Claim

So, if it is not self-publishing, what do we call the process where an established author converts her works to various electronic formats without going through a name-brand publishing house?

I am expropriating iPublishing. (Contributed by the brilliant Mel Sherer)

Runners up (all contributed by the amazing members of the Writers Guild) include:

Direct Publishing

Show-me-the-money Publishing

Keeping-the-big-bucks Publishing

Entrepreneurial Publishing

F/U-Publishing

Mine, all mine Publishing

My Precious or golum Publishing

Publish like it's 2999

Green for the environment, Green for the pocketbook Publishing

I'm the Boss of Me Publishing

Seize the Dinero Publishing

My Bookrona Publishing

My So-Called Book Publishing

Me-Book Publishing

Author Publishing

Writer Publishing

Creator Publishing

Profitable Publishing

and my next-to-favorite, which my Yiddish-speaking grandmother (the real midwife) would have loved: Weblishing.

Take Back the Book

Take Back the Book has moved! Why? Gosh, because Blogger is free. Typepad has nice features but I have resolved to cut back on monthly fees where I can. The original blog will move and continue here.


The theme:

Authors: The gatekeepers have given up their keys! You can sell your own work directly in all e-book formats. But how?

WHY Take Back the Book?

TAKE BACK THE BOOK is not about self-publishing. It is not about books that have not been vetted for true merit, have not been edited professionally or otherwise not deemed worthy of widespread distribution through commercial and literary marketplaces.

It is for traditionally published authors* who probably have a backlist, who may or may not have reversions on some or all of their titles, who may be negotiating a new book contract, or have be in the publishing process on a new title and who are wondering what the hell to do about electronically publishing their past and future works.

This field changes daily.

What is happening? How can authors maximize their availability and reap the best royalty rates?

I’ve been watching the events unfold and have jumped into the fray by opting to prepare my old and new books for sale as e-books without assistance from a traditional publishing company or the hybrids sprouting in a fertile field.

How is it done?

Is it worth it?

Stay tuned and check back to see if it what transpires.

*Not to be confused with “traditionally built women” as per Alexander McCall Smith’s heroine Precious Ramotswe.