Tag: self publishing

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One Book Launched, What Comes Next?

carolyncordon

I’m thrilled to say the launch of my most recent book, “Plague Invasion” was a success, with many copies of the book finding new homes, and many more to post to their new homes iin the following week or so.

Self-publishing a book needs so much more than just asking for submissions, putting them together, and then have a launch to give a copy of the contributors present, and actually sell some of the books.

So I’ve done that part now, and as I indicated, it was a successful day, with the money taken bringing me closer to breaking even, if I don’t factor in the time this project has taken, and other related costs. I’m enjoying what I’ve been doing, and so am happy to cover some costs.

And one of the costs is to send out books that have been ordered. I have postal addresses, so today I’ll be putting together the books to post, in Australia and beyond.

But I’ve already begun work on the next Covid-related book. Someone (I can’t remember who) gave me the idea for the title, and I’ve already begun a file on my laptop, with some contributions that didn’t get into this first book.

The second book has the working title of “Are We There Yet?” or possibly the slightly longer title of ‘Are We There Yet? Yeah, Nah …” This second, longer title will, I hope, lend a satirical tone to the project, and assist in bringing in a diverse range of creative writing responses.

I plan on this new anthology being ready to launch at about this time next year, hopefully during the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words 2022. So I am in the middle of getting all of these copies of Plague Invasion out, but I am also looking to the next book.

Am I mad? Or am I just enjoying myself with this so much, I don’t want the fun to end?! Maybe a bit of both. But if I can do this without sending myself broke, and give some previously unpublished writers the chance to have their work in a book, without getting ripped off, I’m more than happy to do that!

I have a sponsor (my mother), who I acknowledged in Plague Invasion, and she is one of those people who had their written work published in a book for the first time, and she read the short story she wrote at the book launch, a very prooud moment for her, and for me as well!

My Mum is great! I don’t know whether she will get hooked on this writing thing, and want to be in the next book, but if she does write something, I will certainly consider it, as I did for the works published in Plague Invasion.

The book, what will the cover for the next book look like?

I was stunned at the perfection of this book cover, and can hardly wait to see what may happen for the next book. I’ll have to wait and see what works may come in, once I’ve put the call out. Not yet, I need a rest! Patrick Millikan, the young man who created the from cover image has done fine work with this one, that’s for sure!

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The Book I’ve Edited Looks Fantastic!

carolyncordon

Yes, I caught up with the printer, and the man who created the front cover, and it looks fantastic! This book will be ready well in advance of the programmed launch date, and that feels like a good thing, no, a great thing!

When I decided I wanted to make this book, Plague Invasion Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19, I wasn’t sure of my abilities to do such a thing, calling for reponses from people all around the world. But those responses came, and they came, and putting them together in satisfactory way pleased me greatly!

And I was thrilled that the printer, who I’ve used before, liked what he saw in this book! So it’s on the way to being made beautiful, with all of the right things in the right places! It is so thrilling to have managed such an important book, and even though I will be out of pocket intially, I expect, with actual book sales, I will cover all of my costs, and start to make money.

Of course, if I factor in all of my own time, and the time of the various writers involved, that would paint a different picture of it all, but writers write for the love of it, and then, as I have, they may move into the ‘editing’ role, again for the love of it. I gave a lot of my life to this book, and I’m happy to see it looks like a worthy book indeed.

The front cover captures the craziness of this Covid time we’ve all been going through, and I have been thrilled to have given this role to a young man who has been studying Graphic Design at university, and from the way he was talking to the printer today, he knows what he’s talking about, and I was impressed when I was listening to them talking about ‘bleeds’ and ‘bleeding’.

My mystery writer mind listened in, and I wondered about the possibility of such a conversation being heard and misunderstood in one of my novels in the future! But I have lots of other bits of writing to work on, and that idea may have to wait until another time.

I was doing my ‘Writer in Residence’ thing again today, and enjoyed in very much again. Even though I didn’t get much money in my tin there, I did work at raising awareness, to some degree, talking to one of the regulars there about Multiple Sclerosis. Later on, I went to Gawler, where the printing business is, and doing some more fundraising, and awareness raising there, or I tried, anyway.

There will be another opportunity for that again later in the week, and on Monday next week too. After that, I will be taking my money raised to the MS Society SA & NT, to see how close I was able to get to my target of $1000. I fear I won’t hit that total, but I’m glad I’ve been working at it anyway, confident that I did the best I could with it.

So today was a great day for me, and I hope for another great day again tomorrow, when I do a Zoom meeting about ‘branding’, and perhaps some more of my novel written!

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Using Both Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing

carolyncordon

As a writer, I don’t say, traditional publishing is dead, and Self-Publishing has taken over. I am a user of both, to get my written words into books, published and presented to the world.

I have books published in both ways, and while I have made the most money from a traditionally published book, my self-published book sales have done far better that just paying for themselves.

Some of my published books … author’s photo

So books … with traditionally published books, somebody else, the publisher, is the one who does most of the work to bring the books into the world, putting it all together, and getting in printed, then doing some book promotion, one hopes so anyway. The author may or may not be involved in the promotion of the book, but in the interests of book sales, it’s best if they do …

With self-publishing, it is the author who takes on all of the roles of the traditional publisher, as well as the writing of the words that make the book. And they then take over all of the marketing and promotion of that book too.

Book marketing, getting books into libraries and book stores is not an easy thing, but bit by bit, I’m slowly learning a little bit about it, and I know I am capable of speaking to an audience about my books and writing, so that aspect of promotion doesn’t scare me, I enjoy it, in fact.

At the moment, I have two books on the verge of being published. One is a self-published anthology, on the subject of Covid-19, titled “Plague Invasion”. It is a fine book, and will be launched at the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words (Recovery), an annual event my writing group, Adelaide Plains Poets Chapter and Verse, is running for the sixth year, in late July.

The other book is one I submitted to a traditional publisher, Ginninderra Press, who have published two of my poetry collections so far. I am happy with the results of their work, with those two books, and look forward to working with them again, when my new collection “Leonard Cohen is dead” comes out in the first half of next year.

In my self-publishing role, I worked hard at getting the new book put together, asking for submissions last year, and considering all received, to make a worthy collection showing many aspects of this horror pandemic the world is suffering … It will be an important book, historically, and I hope I can do it justice … I’ve had good people working with me, and will have more assistance into the future in promoting the book, I am sure.

I have a printer, a local business, who I’ve worked with getting my self-published books printed, and I am completely happy with their work, so am using them again for the anthology. Next week, or the week after, I expect I will visit them, and hand over the final draft of the book, and then they will do their work, and not too long after, I will have books, as many as I can afford, and expect to sell …

That is the difficult part of being a self-publisher for me, being able to afford paying for the books to come into be printed. My time taken in producing the books, though the hours are many, doesn’t cost me any actual money, I do the work because I enjoy doing it, and I hope to reap benefits from book sales.

The best part about having books to sell though, whether traditionally published ones or self-published, is actually talking to the people who are purchasing a book from me. Obviously, I do a lot more of that, with the self-published books, because I am the one selling the book to them, not a more anonymous book shop.

That first traditionally published book of mine, which first came out many years ago, still brings me money, in the form of Educational Lending Rights, every year, based on the number of that book (titled “My Dog”), are held in school libraries. And easy way to make passive income, if the book gets purchased by the schools …

The books in the photograph, are from my Writer in Residence gig, which I do every Monday morning (not public holidays), and I get occasional book sales doing that. The books there are some of my books, not quite all of them, and I’ve been wondering whether or not I should be having more copies of one of my books published …

I might wait a bit longer on that decision, and see if I make money to do that, from the anthology coming out in July … Ah decisions, decisions! Money in, money out!

So overall, I can’t say which is the better publishing method, both are different, and the type of book may do better with one over the other. Self-publishing is frustrating when there problems, but it’s fun, when it goes well!

I’d love to hear from other writers about their experiences with both of these two forms of publishing, please leave comments!

covid 19

The End Approaches

carolyncordon

Very soon, we will be at the closing date for submissions of poetry and/or prose for the “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”, and once we hit that date, that will be it. There will be no more submissions accepted.

And how does that feel? Well, it means that part of the work will be over, and it will be time to get stuck right into the next part. I have around 110 pages of the book almost ready to go, still a few little things to add, once I put the word out, asking for them, and they arrive. It’s been a great time putting all of this together, and I thank all of the great poets and writers who have sent me their work for possible inclusion in this anthology.

Oh course, when I wrote that title for this blog post, well, it’s not the end of the whole thing, there are still a good few steps to go. I’m still waiting on those other things I mentioned, and once they arrive, I need to place them in their correct place in the book. I still don’t have either the front or back covers, but they are more or less on their way. Once I get them, and everything else, I will have to finish off the pagination for the content section. There are ways to get this done for me, by my lap top, apparently, I’ll have to look into that.

Once that’s all done, and ready, all of the bits and pieces where they should be, I will need someone to read it, let me know of anything that needs more work on it. If they see any flaws, or work to be done, I’ll have to attend to that. And once that is all done, and good, Time to decide how many copies I will need for the book launch, and beyond, how many needed for sending copies out to all of the Australian contributors, and getting their postage addresses if I don’t already have them.

Some of the out of Australian contributors will be wanting copies, so I will get those copies printed too, and extra copies as well to have on hand if and when other copies are needed. I’ll have to send a copy to the National Library, and the State Library of South Australia too. Once I have the numbers of copies needed, then I head off to see the printer, and there the file is worked on to get it ready for printing, and then yes, the book gets printed, hooray.

I have to organise the book launch then, and get together a list of the people to invite along for that. I love book launches! I know where the launch will happen, and that part of it will be easy to organise. I know the venue well, and the people there know me well too. Exciting times.

Will it happen this year, or next? I don’t know yet. But the launch will happen on the last Sunday of a yet unknown month. It can’t happen before September, and that gives me plenty of time. If it happens next year, that might be better, in terms of people who can actually get there for the launch, I hope. And of course if there’s no halt to this Covid-19 crisis, there will be a limit on the number of people who can actually attend the launch anyway …

Who knows when the end for that might come?

inspiration, meaning in life, Writing

My Next Book (after the current one)

carolyncordon

I’ve begun thinking it may be time to get on with a new writing project, something different to my current, big project, one that is different to that current project, in many ways.

So my current project is working on an anthology, where I’ve asked for the work of others, to come to me, so I can work with those words, and make a beautiful book. The book will be “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”. An important book, for sure, an historical book, that will be a record of what people have been doing, thinking, and writing about in this difficult time.

But with that project at a waiting stage (waiting for what? Waiting for me to work out what the next step was), I’ve been thinking about putting some of my thoughts about what life was all about, into a book, a new book. Writers write, editors edit, and those you do both of those things, well they self-publish …

Three of my self-published books

I know how to write, how to put a book together, and I know a printer who knows me, and has worked with me on most of my self-published books. I trust him, and he does a good job. Marketing is a problem, for many writers who have to take on that role, but writing and getting the writing made into a book, what a lovely time that is. But marketing the book … It has to happen though, doesn’t it? If you want to sell your new book, you have to show it to people.

And of course, having a blog, obviously, that is useful, to show your work, your words, to other people. So here I am, talking about my previous books, my current book-in-progress, and the one that may come after the current book. I’ve written about a number of different things. In the photo above we have “Mick Jane and Me”, which is a memoir talking about my life with Multiple Sclerosis. And “Precious Gems” is there too, a poetry collection about child sexual abuse, and other abuse too. And then, for something completely different, is “Dig It!”, an amusing little book with illustrations I created with my clever friend Ally Hean who did the pictures.

All mine, all self-published, and all available too, if you’re interested in having a copy go to this page and find out how. So books are my thing, books and words. If only marketing was as natural to me … I’m trying though, and if anyone out there would like to have me talk to a group about my writing, I certainly am a natural at doing that, for sure. I can talk about anything, in interesting, and amusing ways, if I’m asked, and it’s something I love doing!

Libraries, service groups, school students, I’ll happily talk to them about writing, poetry, and my books! Once upon a time, I was a shy and retiring little mouse, who never said boo to a goose, now, talk, talk, talk, I can go on for as long as I’m asked to, and I’ll be interesting, informative, and maybe even funny!

So my next book, that began this blog post, has a working title, which will not be its final title (Life Is …), and it has some chapter headings. five of them, in fact. And some of those chapters have brief notes on what they may be about. And of course, I’ve just remembered, I actually have another book-in-progress, which still seems unlikely to become my ‘current work-in-progress’ still, the first in a series of murder mysteries. Time still feel to fraught for that one.

Although, there’s the next book in the Buster the Dog series, that began with “Dig It!”, nd that one will not be a serious book, but a funny one about Buster the Dog, and McTavish the Cat, and the troubles they have learning how to live in the same house, after Buster’s ‘owner’ finds a new woman in his life, and moves in with her (and her cat). At the moment, this is still a project to come, as I’ll be writing it with my friend Janette, who is doing the McTavish side of the story, and both of us are working on other things.

And thinking about that thought, I almost had a title for that next book, but it drifted in and then drifted out again, before I could write it down … Ah well, if it’s a good enough idea, hopefully it will drift back in, and I’ll write it down next time! Words come and go, don’t they? Words and thoughts, good ones, so so ones, terrible ones. And the title of that book may well depend on something that will come,and be appropriate when I’m writing the book. Time will tell … Hmm, Time Will Tell – could that be the title? Haha, who knows I have to write the book first!