Tag Archives: self publishing

A Debut Novelist’s Journey to Self-Publish “The Hereafter” by Jessica Bucher

Posted on May 30, 2016 | 5 comments

I try to be open to all sorts of publishing options. Today I invited Jessica Bucher to the author’s den to discuss her journey to becoming self-published.

And here we go!

Jessica, this is your debut novel. Describe your journey to publication and what made you decide on self-publishing.

Wow. What a journey! First of all, I have NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, to thank for finally getting me to write this novel, and many more. After writing and revising this novel for three years, I decided to query the manuscript to agents. It was a long process with many revisions and rejection letters. At the end of the day, I realized that I may have let my impatience and excitement get the better of me, and I sent out the project before it was ready. It was a learning experience.

Finally, after two years of trying, I received an offer for publishing! By that point, I had watched many of my friends venture into self-publishing. So, I was at a crossroads: sign over rights and commission to a publishing company or fly solo. It was the proudest moment of my career to tell the publisher that I was going to pass on the offer and publish the book myself.

I knew that self-publishing was no small feat, and I was not going to disillusion myself with thinking that it would be easy. There were more mistakes and learning curves ahead, and more still I’m sure. I’m proud of this project, and I know that this was the path right for this book. I love spreading the word about this book and sharing my story of how we got to this point.

Thanks for letting me share that here!

Thanks for coming, Jessica. Here’s a little about Jessica’s debut novel.

About THE HEREAFTER:

Nin has no recollection of her death.

The things she does remember, like her cruel boyfriend, troubled father, and absent mother, she’d like to forget.

Dylan doesn’t need to remember his death to know that he deserved it. Who needs memories when you have the scars?

Sparks ignite when the two, very different, strangers meet. Together they spend one endless summer exploring their new world. Suddenly, their after-lives hold more possibility and promise than their tragic teenage lives ever did.

But no dream lasts forever, and all too soon, harmful memories from their pasts emerge and threaten to tear them apart. Given the chance to change their fates, Nin and Dylan must decide– life or love.

Weaving through past and present and alternating perspectives, The Hereafter is an emotional journey about young love and second chances.

About the Author!

Jessica is a young adult author pursuing publishing. She is married to an Army pilot and they live together in Germany with their two boys. In her free time, Jessica runs a local writing group, teaches yoga, travels and speaks poor German. Her first novel is The Hereafter.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway Information: Contest ends June 10, 2016

Three (3) winners will receive a digital copy of The Hereafter by Jessica Bucher (INT) CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

5 Comments

Posted in Author Advice, Author Interview

Tagged jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Jessica Bucher, self publishing, the hereafter

Top 6 Mistakes People Make Self Publishing a Book!

Posted on April 25, 2016 | 4 comments

I have to admit, I am a bit of a snob when it comes to buying books. I check to see if it is self-published. If it is, I pay a lot more attention to what is said in the reviews than I normally would. Even then, I might think twice before I purchase.

But there is a reason for this snobbery… I have been burned far too many times and wasted my time and money on books that had been published improperly.

I came across this YouTuber the other day, and I think she gives very sound advice. If more people listened to advice like this, I’m sure the quality of most self-pubbed books would improve.

Now, remember, I am not saying all self-published authors took shortcuts… it had just been my experience that eight out of ten (roughly) self-published books are missing one important factor she talks about.

Oh – also – your mother and siblings don’t count as developmental editors or copy editors or proofreaders.**

And (in general) fantastic developmental editors are lousy proofreaders. And, likewise, fantastic proofreaders cannot do a developmental edit. So yes, you do need more than one (possibly three) editors.

So, listen on if you are considering self-publishing. This YouTuber has “been there done that.” Take it away, Texan in Tokyo!

**Unless they just happen to be professional editors, and believe they can be subjective about your work

4 Comments

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged how do I self publish, how to self publish, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, self publish, self publishing

It’s marketing time! More blog posts and interviews, less novel writing.

Posted on August 29, 2014 | 11 comments

While I was on vacation, dreaming about getting back and leisurely finishing ASHES IN THE SKY, my publicist sent over my blog tour interviews and guest post requests.

After reviewing them (14 in all so far) I decided to write “just a little” of ASHES IN THE SKY per day to keep myself going, and bust out the marketing for FIRE IN THE WOODS as soon as I can (They are all due back by September 15^th)

I cringe when I think of it, because my original goal was to finish ASHES IN THE SKY before my vacation. Then I moved the goal day to a week after vacation when I got bogged down with the edits. Right now that deadline doesn’t look all that rosy either.

But I will not be thwarted! I am doing my best to write clean copy. I am hoping that all I will have to do is general insertion of emotion and setting. Hopefully there will be no huge changes or additions to be made, but I won’t know until I send this puppy out to my beta readers to be slapped around a bit.

As it stands now, I am just turning the corner into act three. The third and final act should be a roller-coaster ride and easy plot-wise to write, but hard in the “action” department. I probably only have about 10,000-20,000 words to go. I can do this. I just need to keep plugging away.

11 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips, Marketing Madness

Tagged ashes in the sky, author, beta partner, beta reading, critique, critiquing, editing, Fiction, finding an agent, fire in the woods, getting published, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, literary agent, literary fiction, Manuscript, novel, pitch, query, query help, self publishing, synopsis, writing, Writing help

When the edits are finally over… Whew!

Posted on August 26, 2014 | 18 comments

Edits are finally done for FIRE IN THE WOODS. Part of me breathes a sigh of relief, while the other part of me cringes in horror.

This was a multi-faceted process, which would have been much easier if I was not writing book two, ASHES IN THE SKY at the same time under a very stringent deadline. I work great under pressure, but not always great under double pressure.

Developmental Edit

Anyway, step one was the Developmental Edit. This was not all that hard. There were two minor changes… one that took a half-hour phone conversation with my editor until we worked it out… but really minor for the overall story. #1 was ramping up the father’s reaction at one point, and #2 was giving Jess a little more of a reason to be afraid of another character. Overall, easy fixes.

General Editing

After the developmental edit we went through three rounds of general editing for flow, readability and stuff like that. Here is where I found all those words that were repeated. This was the most painstaking part for me.

Proofreading

After this we went through three FULL READS of the novel front to back looking for typos, mis-spelled words, improper punctuation and the like. THIS is the part that scares me. I found errors each time I read it (after correcting what I found the previous time). This really stresses me out because being a perfectionist; I would like to have been able to read through front to back without finding any typos. All I can do at this point is hope and pray I found them all. (And maybe bite off a few nails)

So, I leave for vacation knowing that my work is done, and all I need to do now is worry about book two… and reapplying sun screen.

18 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

Tagged author, beta partner, beta reading, critique, critiquing, editing, Fiction, finding an agent, getting published, literary agent, literary fiction, Manuscript, novel, pitch, query, query help, self publishing, synopsis, writing, Writing help

How to Publish Topic #4: Qualified Small Houses

Posted on July 7, 2014 | 11 comments

I will admit, this is my sweet spot. Qualified Small Houses are the up and comers that have the big-guys quaking in their boots. Some of these people have jumped ship from bigger houses. Some are experts in their fields, while others are succeeding because they are not afraid to break the rules.

These companies have the ability to do everything that the bigger houses do, without the name recognition of the larger houses. Royalty rates, in general, are higher, and contract terms (in some cases) are easier to swallow.

While these companies may not have the big sales forces of the large houses, that’s not stopping them from publishing best sellers. Not only that, these houses still see the value in MARKETING, and not just the big titles. They back every book that they publish.

The list of these little gems is not as long as some other lists, because there are not as many “independent publishers” that can boast best sellers. If you know of any that are not on my list, please let me know so I can add them.

Ellora’s Cave (Romance only – Could be considered a big-guy these days.)

Entangled (Strong Romantic Elements Required)

GMMG (Month9Books, Swoon Romance, Tantrum Books)

Lyrical Press (Recently acquired by Kennsington – Romantic Elements Required)

11 Comments

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged bragging rights, How to get published, Publishing, self publishing, small house, small house publishing, small publisher, ways to get published

How to Publish Topic #3: Bigger than you can imagine houses

Posted on June 30, 2014 | 5 comments

We’re continuing our Monday discussion of different ways to get published. Today we’re talking about large publishing houses.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized that there were a “Big Six”, because there sure are a lot of OTHER houses out there that can give you exactly the same stuff. Some take unagented manuscripts, others do not.

Some that don’t take unagented submissions open up once a year (or once in a while) to unagented authors, and always for a short time. If you are interested in this, you need to follow these publishers closely. The windows are tight, you don’t want to miss it.

In general, everything I said about the “Big Six” is true about these guys. One in particular – HARLEQUIN – should be particularly attractive if you are a romance writer. TOR should be very attractive if you are a Speculative Fiction writer. The reason I say this, is that these publishers have followings. People who like a certain type of romance trust Harlequin, and will buy a book for the Harlequin name alone. Hey, I wouldn’t say no to that.

Here are some of the “biggies” that are not considered “Big Six”

Harlequin (Recently purchased by HarperCollins)

Tor (St. Martins Press)

Baen Books

Baker Book House

Daw Books

Houghton Mifflin

Scholastic

Kennsington

Personally, I think the bragging rights are just as good to get into any of these guys. I certainly wouldn’t say no… but only if I believed that they loved my book enough to help promote it.

5 Comments

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged different ways to publish, how to publish, Publishing, self publishing

How to Publish. The decision can drive an author CRAZY.

Posted on June 2, 2014 | 11 comments

Recently, I sent out a little tweet with an article attached. My comment was something like: “Interesting article, but I still think qualified small houses are the way to go.”

Someone tweeted me back asking why I thought that, since they were beginning to research the subject.

I thought about explaining in 140 characters or less— but you thought Twitter pitching was hard. Ha!

So, here is the blog post I promised her. I figured there are probably a lot of people out there with their heads spinning. Maybe this will help.

Remember, this is all my opinion after reading tons of articles, other blog posts, and researching the industry in general. Also, everyone is different. What’s right for one person may not be right for another.

(I also admit that my mind changes daily – but I usually return to my final conclusion eventually)

There are more options out there to be published today than ever before. Authors, for the first time, have a heck of a lot of control over making their dreams come true. They have also never been in such danger of flushing their careers down the toilet. Whatever you choose to do, just make sure you do it right. No shortcuts.

So, what are our choices? Don’t look anywhere else for all these categories. This is how I look at the industry. There is some overlap, but my nutty brain sees all of these as different in one way or another.

Here are what I look at as the major options available.

Agent/No agent
The Big Six (or five now). (Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette, Simon and Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan) *And the oodles of imprints below them*
Bigger than you can imagine houses (Like Harlequin – Umm, now part of Harper Collins, come to think of it)
Qualified Small Houses (There is a fine line between #4 and #5)
Up and Coming, Established Houses
Startups
Self-Publishing (And all of the different iterations of self-publishing)

Now, I’m not going to talk about all these in one post, because long posts bore me to tears. I know I don’t have the time to read that much, and I know it’s hard to digest all that at once to. In my next post I’ll talk about agents, and we’ll take it from there.

While we’re waiting, anyone want to chime in on why they made whatever decision they made?

11 Comments

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged author, big 6 publisher, do I need an agent, how should I publish, how to publish, publishing options, query, self publishing, submission

How to make Your Reader Care About Your Character #5

Posted on February 1, 2014 | 3 comments

I am skimming over notes I took from a class about creating characters that your reader will care about.

Disclaimer: I honestly don’t remember where this handout came from. I’m going to paraphrase the topic and think up my own ideas, but I don’t want anyone to think I’m stealing without giving credit.

It should be a given to an author that they need to create characters that their readers will care about. They do not necessarily have to like the character. Some really great characters are very unlikable. But we need to CARE about them, or we won’t keep reading. Right?

So how do we do this?

1. Relationships. (See previous post)

2. Give them a goal (See previous post)

3. Caring about others (See previous post)

4. A special gift or talent. (See previous post)

5. A handicap

Oooooo. That’s a good one.

Here’s a good one. Even though you might not be handicapped, you can imagine what it would be like, right? You feel for someone with a disability.

This came up recently in a comment on my blog, when someone mentioned that the horrid character on the TV show House was softened because he had a handicap.

How about a phobia?

A phobia is a good one two… something they need to overcome in order to fulfill their purpose of hero in the story.

Or something even more simple and relatable

Maybe it is something simple, like they need to run for their lives and the only car available to flee in has a stick shift, but the character does not know how to drive a stick.

Anything wrong with your character is an easy way to make them relatable. No one wants to read about someone who is perfect, right?

Unless you are Mary Poppins. (But she was only practically perfect, right?)

That’s it!

Five ways to create the ever-important care-factor. Give your readers characters that they can care about, and they will scream for more!

Think about the main character in your favorite novel. Pinpoint exactly what it was that made you engage with them. What was it? Come on, share the ideas!

3 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

How to make Your Reader Care About Your Character #4

Posted on January 25, 2014 | 4 comments

I am skimming over notes I took from a class about creating characters that your reader will care about.

So how do we do this?

1. Relationships. (See previous post)

2. Give them a goal (See previous post)

3. Caring about others (See previous post)

4. A special gift or talent.

A special gift or talent can be tricky

This one can be tricky, but it can be used when the others fail. A special talent, I think, needs to be part of the plot to make it work. Like a person loves to draw, so we want to see them become a successful artist. If they don’t, then why did they have the talent mentioned in the story to begin with?

Make sure it has meaning

This needs to be all about fulfillment. They need to use the talent to make something happen in the story.

Yes, this could be a great device, but be careful to make sure it fits inside your plot and story arc.

What recent special talent have you read that really drew you in to a novel?

4 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

How to make Your Reader Care About Your Character #3

Posted on January 18, 2014 | 2 comments

I am skimming over notes I took from a class about creating characters that your reader will care about.

So how do we do this?

1. Relationships. (See previous post)

2. Give them a goal (See previous post)

3. Caring about others

Even the most horrible person on the planet has to care about someone, right?

Well, maybe not the most horrible person on the planet. I suppose you could create a noteworthy character who does not care about others, but the more I think of it, even the greatest villains of all time cared about something.

A villain can be a big softie

The guy in Psycho was pretty twisted, but that was okay, because he really loved his grandma. The Dude in Despicable Me wanted to be the greatest villain of all time, but these kids that he cared about kept getting in the way.
I think the idea is that in most cases everyone cares about someone. It may be trivial, or it may be gruesome, like keeping your beloved dead grandma… but it is that “care factor” that a reader can relate to.

Taking the easy way out

The handout talks about easier versions of caring, like taking care of a baby or helping an old lady cross the street. So, if your character is a nice person, just make sure we can see them doing something that shows that they care for others. They will get brownie points from your readers for their trouble.