Getting Your Hands Dirty as a Professional Writer

Today my guest is author DeAnna Knippling, who's got some excellent advice about becoming a professional writer. And while DeAnna is holding down the fort
at Terry's Place, I'm doing my monthly post at The Blood Red Pencil. Welcome, DeAnna.

The publishing world is full of the controversy between independent and traditional publishing, but the real secret is that professional writers need to take control of their writing business, no matter which side of the coin they're on (or both).

When did business get to be a dirty word, when it came to writing?

Probably back in prehistoric times, when one Neanderthal looked at another and said, "You know, that story was pretty good. What you need is a wider audience. I can get you that...for 87.5% of your total meat and flint intake, less 15%. But don't worry. You'll probably make more money with me than you could on your own. I mean, you do want to spend all your time telling stories, right?"

As far as I can tell, most writers, most of the time, will opt to let someone else take care of the business for them, especially after a lengthy explanation of why they really shouldn’t do it themselves. (If you can figure out what day of the week it is and guesstimate a tip at a restaurant, you have all the basic talent at math you really need.) It's true that learning how to write is an intense, time-consuming process and that you have to budget your time to focus on writing. But putting your financial future in someone else's hands is almost never a good idea...unless you never plan to make money or get published.

But, short of going to college for an MBA in running your writing business, what do you do?

Publishing: It's About Marketing

What I'm reading: Dirty, by Debra Webb.

Also, I'm revisiting my post on romantic moments over at Ellis Vidler's blog, the Unpredictable Muse today.

Thanks to Paty for sharing her reasons for going indie with her older books. I'm in a similar situation, and understand exactly what she's talking about. In addition to publishing my back list titles, I've also taken the plunge into indie-publishing a new book. And in case you missed it, I'm offering a Buy 1, Get 1 Free sale. And, unlike the normal retailers, I'm not restricting the free book to the cheaper one. Nope. Buy the 99 cent book (When Danger Calls) and I'll give you the $2.99 book (Danger in Deer Ridge) free.

Why? Because if you're someone starting in e-publishing, people are more likely to take a chance if you've got an established name. I don't. One of the ways to get noticed is for your books to rise in the rankings at the e-stores, and the only way to get them up there is for people to buy them or review them. So, in the hope that if I gave away books, mine would move higher up the ladder, which in turn would generate more sales, I'm willing to eat the cost of giving away books. After all, any business must have an advertising budget.

So, if you've been considering reading my Blackthorne, Inc. e-books, this would be a great time to take that next step.

Recycling My Books

Today I welcome Paty Jager to Terry's Place. Paty uses her love of the old west and ranch life to bring the characters in her historical and contemporary westerns to life. Growing up in a rural area books were her crystal ball to the world outside the secluded Wallowa valley. Her characters portray her feelings on life and love and her joy of reading.

Terry, Thank you for hosting me on your blog today.

I'd like to share with you today how I’m extending the longevity of my books and making them even more accessible to readers.

When I started writing I just wanted to put the characters in my head on paper and enjoy the process of bringing them to life on the pages. Along the way, my husband thought I should see dollars for my efforts and my friends who enjoyed the stories thought more people should enjoy them. That brought me to learning to better my craft and eventually start sending my stories to agents, editors, and contests.

I did well in most contests, usually becoming a finalist, and the rejection letters stopped being photocopied letters and said, "We like this, but…". I became frustrated that while they "liked it but", was nice, it wasn't putting my stories in front of readers.

e-Publishing "Dangers"

What I'm reading: Live Wire, by Harlan Coben.

First: A very Big Thank You to those who have served to protect our country.

Next: Tomorrow is the last day for my May contest, given the dearth of entries, it's likely to be the last contest I run here for a while. Click the contest tab to enter.

And, lastly, Blogger's comment feature is acting up. I'm switching to the pop up window option to see if that helps.

When I started writing, my first publications were with e-publishers, so I've certainly been aware of the digital market from its infancy. I have several titles from my back list that I decided to publish independently, but I recently decided that I would bypass a publisher for my next book. It wasn't an easy decision, but I thought I'd share some of my reasoning, as well as the pros, cons, and potential pitfalls.

First: I'd hoped to add two more of my back list titles, but I have yet to get the official reversion of rights from that publisher, so they've been relegated to the back burner.

Second: my two short stories aren't due out in an anthology until August, and based on what I've seen with that publisher, it's not a firm release by any means.

Third: I'd already written the fourth book in my Blackthorne, Inc. series, and had to decide if I should submit it to the publisher.

DigiCon, E-publishing, and more

What I'm reading: Unforgivable, by Laura Griffin

First, before I forget – contest winners are announced on the weekends, so if you don't leave your emails in comments, you'll have to check back. This means there's still time to scroll through posts and add a comment for a chance to win. This week's special was posted on Monday, in case you missed it.

Thanks to Margaret Fieland for reminding us why it's so important to back up our work, and with suggestions for ways to do it. I happen to use a program called Dropbox (or is it a service? – terminology eludes me). With our new digs, living on 2 stories, it's so nice to be able to bounce downstairs (only did that literally once) and work on the laptop for a change of scenery, and have all my backed up files follow me down instead of dealing with flash drives.

Note: if anyone's interested, I can send you an 'official' invitation, and you'll get some extra storage space when you sign up. Just email me.

Since most of yesterday was spent down in The Springs while the Hubster underwent some oral surgery, I'm going to point you to the blog I did yesterday at Savvy Authors about e-publishing. The publishing industry is changing – nobody knows exactly where it's going, but to quote Bob Mayer, it's going very fast.

I made comparisons between the traditional print-first model, the e-book first, and the indie publisher models. The topics I covered included Speed of Publication, Support, Gatekeepers, and Payment for those three models, with some examples of my own experience.

I think the blog is up for public viewing as part of the Savvy Authors DigiCon that runs all this week. You should be able to find it here.

And because we wrote a ginormous check to the dentist, I would like to remind you of my e-books from the Kindle Store,(click the Kindle Books tab) Smashwords, and All Romance e-Books.

I should be back with a meatier blog tomorrow.

Reading? It's About Choices

What I'm reading: All in Time, by Ciana Stone

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and pictures, Patricia. And if you ever want to send me another batch for a Friday Field Trip, I'd love to have them.

There's been a lot of buzz about e-books lately. The Blood Red Pencil Blog is running a series on all aspects of the digital world. The New York Times will be doing best seller lists of e-books. More and more authors are taking their back list titles and offering them digitally. More and more companies are coming up with e-reading devices. You can read a book on something as small as a cell phone, or as large as an iPad. Or, on your own computer, laptop, or netbook.

One thing that seems to hover at the base of all these discussions about "the future of publishing" is that some people seem to think it's all or nothing. There will be e-books OR there will be print books. But isn't everything about choice?


I have shelves and shelves of print books. I have boxes and boxes of print books, awaiting bookshelves. Even here, there are choices of formats. Hard cover? Trade paperback? Mass market paperback? And what about those newer tall skinny paperbacks? So why not a choice of electronic as well?

More on the Big E

I was going to continue Emerald City workshop recaps today, but decided to piggyback onto Pamela Loewy's post from yesterday, especially after a conversation with a couple we met while out to breakfast. The coffee shop is small, as is the community. We'd seen this couple in the shop many times, and finally made those introductions. During the getting acquainted phase, I mentioned I was a writer. Things followed the usual path from there, and I offered them my bookmarks. Normally, I get, "Can I get these at the bookstore?" This time, I got, "Are they on the Kindle?"

First, and I've said this before, I'm all for choices. Abolishing either print or digital formats is NOT a good thing. There's room for both, and definitely places where each works "better" for an individual reader.

Right now, we're watching e-publishing move from infancy to crawling. Publishing itself is changing, and digital options are nudging the changes at a speed traditional publishing isn't used to.

Brave New (Virtual) World

Romantic suspense author Pamela Loewy shares her thoughts about our new wired universe and the challenges it poses to writers, publishers and booksellers. She'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic as well. Welcome, Pamela!

As a newly-published author facing the daunting proposition of marketing my book in our 21st century virtual landscape, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of books and the publishing industry in general.

Ebooks increasingly dominate the market, and with the advent of POD (print-on-demand), self-publishing has grown exponentially. Even as they jump on the electronic bandwagon, conventional publishers must deal with a decreasing customer base, and many bookstores face that same problem. And public libraries – in the next decade or two, will such entities still exist, at least in physical form? For those of you who are Star Trek fans, think of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (to my mind the most philosophical of Enterprise captains) caressing that rarest of antiquities – a hardbound book.

Moving Farther E-Ward

What I'm reading: Playing with Barbie by Wynter Daniels; On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle

Thanks, Daniel for your thought-provoking post on e-publishing yesterday. I'm going to add some of my own thoughts today as a follow-up.

**NOTE: When I checked this morning, the Smashwords website was having problems. If the links aren't working when you read this, I hope you'll come back and try again--it's been one of those days.

My first publications were for e-publishers. This isn't the same as writing for a print publisher that also creates digital versions. Why? My first submission, a short-short story called Words had been accepted by a print magazine. Unfortunately (although not all that uncommon, I discovered), it went out of business before the story appeared. There's not a big market for short stories, and I moved on. A while later, I discovered a new romance publisher, The Wild Rose Press. They took short stories, so I submitted Words to them. It was accepted, and I was now a published author. Of course, back then, the only way to buy the story was through the publisher's website, and there weren't a lot of e-readers around. Most folks read e-books on their computers.


Fast-forward a year or so. I had a novel, Finding Sarah that was outside the relatively rigid box of what the New York print publishers were buying. I submitted it to Cerridwen Press, a new imprint of what was then the 500 pound gorilla of e-publishing, Ellora's Cave.

A brief digression here. Ellora's Cave filled a niche that readers wanted. They published erotic romance, and called it "Romantica." Readers could purchase and read these books and stories from the privacy of their homes. No carrying around steamy-hot covers.

Moving E-Ward

Today I welcome author Daniel Arenson to Terry's Place. With ebooks surging in popularity, many authors are going indie—abandoning their publishers, uploading their novels to ebook stores, earning more money, and selling directly to readers instead of to booksellers. Daniel has some insights to share.

Ebooks are the biggest revolution for reading since Gutenberg... and not because we're switching from paper to digital.


In the 15th century, the invention of print changed the world.Reading and writing were skills few owned. Producing books required copying every word by hand. Print brought knowledge and light to thehuman race and was, perhaps, the most important invention since language itself.

Now, in 2010, we're seeing a new revolution for the book. At a dizzying pace, ebooks are taking over. Millions of readers have already switched to ereaders such as Kindle or Nook. They carry hundreds of titles in their handheld devices whose monitors mimic paper. But it's not the medium--an electronic device vs. a paper book--which is significant. This is a revolution because for the first time, authors can sell their work directly to readers.