What does “wide” mean here? What is “Select”?

“Select” means KDP Select, Amazon’s program that restricts electronic distribution of your ebook to Amazon in exchange for certain royalty and promotional perks. Choosing select means your ebook will be included in Kindle Unlimited (KU), so KU subscribers can read your book in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) for free, but you get paid for the pages they read. “Wide” means foregoing those perks to publish your ebook on a variety of platforms and storefronts. Both Joanna Penn and the Alliance of Independent Authors offer valuable primers on the pros and cons of wide vs. select.   

What’s your career objective?

The choice to publish wide vs. select represents a key strategic decision for the author-publisher. Reflect on your long-term business plan and your author goals, and consider which tactic will be more likely to get you where you wish to go. Although authors can switch back and forth between the two channels at will, the audiences are different. Cycling between the two may result in wasting time serving an audience that won’t support your goals in the long run, or failing to gain traction in your chosen sector.

Here are a few factors to consider:

• How many books do you have? Some authors, including prominent indies like Joanna Penn, recommend going with KU until you have at least two books, as it’s easier to learn a single platform first and then broaden your marketing. 
• What genre or genres do you write in? KU readers favor romance, followed by fantasy and mystery. If you write outside these genres, you may find other platforms friendlier places to build readership. 
• How diversified are your product offerings? Do you offer your books in ebook format only, or do you have print and audio options as well? If you offer products in multiple formats, you can choose to offer your ebooks in KU and offer your print and audio books in wider distribution. 
• What’s your product release strategy? If your business model is to write constantly and publish frequently, Amazon exclusivity may benefit you, as you can learn to time releases and promotional days to make Amazon’s recommendation algorithms work in your favor. If you take longer to write your books, it may make sense to go wide, so you can take advantage of the different platforms’ opportunities to market your existing works while you bring the next one out.
• How comfortable are you with risk? Amazon offers a lot of benefits, but using a single retailer means assuming a great deal of business risk. Amazon can change their royalty structure or the KU business model at any time. Antitrust litigation could conceivably impact the way Amazon treats independent authors. The decision is akin to placing all your retirement funds in a single stock (even if it is Amazon stock), or a balanced portfolio of mutual funds. If you’re comfortable with that level of risk, the payoff from Amazon can be great. If you prefer to diversify your risk, wide makes sense. 

Depending on the number of books you have and the formats you have them in, you can enjoy benefits of both markets. For example, you can offer a few ebooks in KU–a first book in a series, or a complete short series–and have your other ebooks (plus your print and audio versions) wide. Offering a few ebooks in KU lowers the risk to the reader, who doesn’t have to pay anything extra to try your book out. After reading your series, that reader may be willing to venture outside of KU to continue to support your career.

• What kind of audience do you want to build? Authors constantly work to build their platforms, or their readerships. With whom do you want to be in conversation? Although I love it anytime someone signs up to my mailing list, as a US-based author, I get a special thrill when I see an email address with a country extension on the top-level domain. If you desire to build a global audience, it’s hard to argue against choosing wide, because Amazon is not the dominant vendor in most countries. Even if you publish only in English, you can gain a global readership quickly.

This map shows my English-language international sales through Kobo, a Canada-based vendor with a major global presence. This kind of reach simply would not be possible by keeping my books in KDP Select. Aggregators such as Draft2Digital and PublishDrive maintain international networks of smaller vendors that can expand your reach and even help you with translations of your books. 

• What’s your timeline? By publishing through KDP Select, even if you publish in a less-popular genre, you can achieve visibility quickly and easily (keeping it is another matter). Publishing wide demands patience. However, as vendors like Kobo and Apple and aggregators like Draft2Digital and PublishDrive offer more opportunities to market and promote your books, the gap will close.

There’s no right or wrong answer to the question whether to publish wide or select. The only thing that matters is what makes sense for your goals. With independent publishing, the tools are available for you to realize almost any goal you can envision, and you have the power to make all the decisions.

Helen J. Darling writes contemporary women’s fiction. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was self-published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com.

The post Making Goal-Driven Publishing Decisions: Wide vs. Select appeared first on DIY MFA.

You’re probably already familiar with at least a few authors who write under a pen name or pseudonym. J.K. Rowling and J.D. Robb are a couple big names that immediately come to my mind. But you don’t have to be an international best-selling author in order to use a pen name. 

Sometimes, writing under different names is a good way to separate work in completely unrelated genres. Additionally, it can separate different author personas or brands. For example, I write and publish poetry, blogs, and academic papers under my legal name “Manuela Williams.” For my work in self-published romance, I use a pseudonym. 

These pen names, or author personas as I like to call them, differ in voice and content. When I post content as my romance pen name, I adopt a sassier tone more suited to the genre. This differs from the tone I use when sharing poetry, blogs, or academic writing, where “sassy” doesn’t really fit that particular work.

Using a pen name can also make social media and marketing a lot easier. I don’t have to worry about driving away or confusing readers of my academic work by posting pictures of shirtless romance heroes every other day. 

Here are some other reasons you might write under a pen name: 

1. Privacy. If you’re a private person and don’t want friends, family, and/or coworkers to know about your work, then writing under a pseudonym would be a good option for you. 
2. Branding. If, like me, you write in unrelated genres, then creating separate pen names can make branding a lot easier. For example, the kind of content you share on Facebook can vary widely depending on whether you write romance or self-help books. Posts that might be appropriate for a romance author might be seen as completely inappropriate in a different genre.
3. Preventing Confusion. If you have a very common name or share the name of another author, then it might be beneficial to use a pseudonym to prevent confusion. 

While it’s perfectly legal to write under a pen name, it’s important that you aren’t using it as a way to get out of pre-existing contracts or to conduct any other shady business. A pen name will not protect you from the consequences if you’re caught. 

Some authors choose to go through the copyright registration process for work published under their pen name. I have personally never done this, but if it is something you’re interested in, I would strongly recommend reading this helpful FAQ from the U.S. Copyright Office or contacting a lawyer to discuss your options.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the “when and how” of pen names, let’s take a look at some tips for creating and managing one or multiple pen names. 

Research Your Pen Name Before Claiming It

Before creating social media accounts and purchasing a custom domain name, it’s crucial that you do your research first. Google each of the pen names you intend to use to make sure they aren’t already being used. Never use the name of someone famous. And try to avoid using the name of a real person. When I was researching a potential pen name, I found that a fairly prolific business coach had the same name, so I chose a different one. 

Be Honest When Crafting An Author Bio

An author bio is an important aspect of your brand and is a must-have, whether you’re using your real name or a pseudonym. Even though you are technically embodying a “fake” persona when you use a pen name, you should never outright lie to your readers. This means that you shouldn’t include credentials or accomplishments in your author bio that you haven’t actually earned. An example of this would be claiming that you have a PhD in your author bio when, in reality, you don’t.  

This same concept can be applied to author photos. Many authors who use a pen name choose to use a logo in place of an author photo on their website or other places, like Amazon. You should never use an image of someone who isn’t you. Don’t just take a random photo you find on a stock photo site (or worse: Google images) and pretend that it’s you.

Remain Consistent 

Consistently use your pen name on the cover of your books, as well as on your website, newsletter, and author social media accounts. If you’re pitching editors, use the name that you want to be published under. However, when filling out contracts, you should always use your real, legal name. 

Establish Your Boundaries

It’s always a good idea to establish boundaries, especially if you plan on being active on social media or sending out newsletters under your pen name. How much are you willing to share? Some authors share and link to their other pen names. Others (like me!) are more private and keep their pen names completely separate and secret. The choice is yours. Ultimately, you should do what makes you feel the most comfortable. 

Choosing to write under a pen name is a personal choice with no right or wrong “answer.” You might find it easier to keep all of your writing projects under one name. Or you might enjoy maintaining a separate pen name for each genre you write in. Happy writing! 

Manuela Williams is a Reno-based writer. She is the author of Ghost In Girl Costume, which won the 2017 Hard To Swallow Chapbook Contest, and her second poetry chapbook, Witch, was published by dancing girl press & studio in 2019. When she’s not writing, Manuela is busy drinking coffee and spending time with her blind Pomeranian, Redford. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Pinterest.

The post How to Create and Manage a Pen Name appeared first on DIY MFA.

Whenever I’ve heard her speak, Jane Yolen offers the perfect blend of practical advice and pure inspiration. This podcast episode is no exception.

I am overjoyed to share this episode with you today.

About Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen, often called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America”(Newsweek) and the “Aesop of the Twentieth Century” (N.Y. Times) is the author of well over 360 books, including Owl Moon, The Devil’s Arithmetic, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight. Her work ranges from rhymed picture books and baby board books, through middle grade fiction, poetry collections, nonfiction, and up to novels, poetry collections, and story collections for young adults and adults. She has also written lyrics for folk rock singers and groups, several animated shorts, and done voice over work and talk radio.

Her books and stories have won an assortment of awards–two Nebulas, a World Fantasy Award, a Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, a nomination for the National Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award, among many others. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. She is also the winner (for body of work) of the World Fantasy Assn. Lifetime Achievement Award, Science Fiction Poetry Association Grand Master Award, the Catholic Library’s Regina Medal, the Kerlan Medal from the University of Minnesota, the du Grummond Medal, the Smith College Alumnae Medal and the New England Pubic Radio Arts and Humanities Award in 2014. Six colleges and universities have given her honorary doctorates.

Also worthy of note, she lost her fencing foil in Grand Central Station on a date, fell overboard while white water rafting in the Colorado, went dogsledding in Alaska, and her Skylark Award–given by NESFA, the New England Science Fiction Association–set her good coat on fire.

On a more personal note…

I myself have at least a dozen or so of her books in my home library, but her book on writing–called TAKE JOY–holds a place of honor on my bookshelf. In fact, she signed my copy back in 2010 and I’d like to share it now. “For Gabriela, One writer to another. Jane Yolen.” This was the first time a famous writer–someone I looked up to–ever called me a writer. This meant a lot to me and has been source of inspiration whenever I start to doubt myself.

In this interview…

Jane Yolen shared so many precious nuggets of wisdom in our interview that it’s hard to know where to start in listing them all. You’ll have to listen to the episode for all the details, but here’s list with some of the awesome insights and advice we covered:

• Sharing our inner truth, how our perceptions can color our version of the “facts” and how we as writers can communicate Truth-with-a-capital-T.
• What it truly means to put our hearts on the page and why as writers this is our most important work.
• The decision to “go pro,” and how to find a balance between projects that propel your career and those that speak to your heart.
• Failure, why it’s a good thing, and how to give yourself permission to fail.
• How to know when a manuscript is finished (hint: it’s never finished).
• Cultivating a daily writing practice and how to do it on your own terms.

Plus, Jane Yolen’s #1 piece of advice for writers.

Resource Recap

Where can you find Jane Yolen on the web? Visit  her website, JaneYolen.com, as well as her Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads pages.

We talked a bout a TON of books on the interview, and she’s written over 360 of them so it can be hard to know where to start. Here’s a list of selections, both of upcoming books, and a few others that we discussed in the interview.

Recent or Upcoming Releases:

Centaur Rising (Holt)
National Geographic Animal Stories (National Geographic Kids)
The Last Changeling (Viking)
A Plague of Unicorns (Zonderkidz)
The Bloody Tide: Poems of Politics and Power (HolyCow! Press)

Classics and Personal Favorites:

Owl Moon
The Devil’s Arithmetic
Take Joy: A Writer’s Guide to Loving the Craft
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

Link to Episode 15

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 15: Master Class with Jane Yolen appeared first on DIY MFA.