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.

How is 2020 treating you? Are you doing okay? Staying hydrated? Healthy, I hope? The year has not, on the whole, been kind to us, and if you’re anything like me your writing practice floundered more than once, or perhaps you failed to meet goals you set earlier in the year. If this year taught me anything, it’s that I can’t control outcomes, only process. In trying to manage process, I’ve discovered that aligning my goals and intentions with my values not only brings new meaning to my writing practice, it also helps me persevere when I hit a rough patch.

So much of publishing is out of our control. 

You write the best book you can, but if you’re traditionally published, you may be querying agents, or you may have an agent who’s shopping your manuscript around. Those waiting games are hard. If you’re self-published, you may publish your book to a high professional standard but struggle to market the book. In either route to publication, the book may not sell the way you hope. You can’t always control that. Then, things like pandemics or other disasters upend even best-formulated strategies. 

But connecting your goals and daily practices to your values can give you the juice to persevere. If you set goals in January that dictate, “I’m going to get an agent and publish my first book this year,” or “I’m going to sell 10,000 copies of my latest novel,” when you collect your seventy-fifth rejection letter from an agent or sell half as many books as you hoped, the negative voices in your head may derail your efforts. Instead, consider the values that bring meaning to your work and reorient your efforts toward them. 

Maybe you value creativity, or community, or sharing voices and experiences that don’t often get heard.

 Try reframing your goal: “Because I care about living a creative life, I will research and query 100 agents who represent the kind of writing I produce.” If you set intentions (kind of a daily mini-goal) that derive from those values–“I intend to find a way to serve my creative needs today, regardless of what the day throws at me,” or “I care about telling a story about people who are often overlooked, and intend to give time to that project today,”–it can give you the nudge that helps you push through your writer’s block or carve out time in your lunch hour to write instead of goofing off on Twitter. 

Ideally, goals and intentions work hand-in-hand. The goals (especially SMART ones) define specific destinations and steps to get there. Intentions give you not only the flexibility and personal compassion you may need to help you through the daily grind, but connect you deeply to the reasons why you’re working towards those goals in the first place. When the outcomes get thrown in the garbage, the process can validate the work you may otherwise feel you’ve wasted. But–not coincidentally–people who align their goals and intentions with their values tend to realize them over those who don’t, and report a stronger sense of well-being. 

Connecting the dots

This year, I wrote all my SMART goals on index cards that I posted to a bulletin board behind my writing space. I see them every time I sit down to write. I’ve accomplished four, and am on track to accomplish another four, but two goals–both related to managing the business side of my publishing life–need my attention. By reconnecting to the value behind those goals–mitigating the stress that I otherwise suffer when I can’t put off those tasks any longer–I’m reminded that I’m not just being a bullying boss to myself. The goal is actually rooted in my own self-care. That reminder helps me to set an intention: I will remember this task I dislike is structured to save me weeks of drudgery. That nudges me to take five minutes now that I’ll be glad I took at the end of the year, when I want to be doing fun things. 

Process is in our control; outcome is not. That’s why setting goals and intentions rooted in personal values matters so much. Connecting those goals to your values will validate your work in spite of the sideways turns your journey to those goals may take.

Helen J. Darling writes and publishes contemporary women’s fiction at her imprint, Bricolage Books. She published her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, in January 2018. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com, on Instagram, Twitter and on Facebook. 

The post Feeling stuck? Reconnect your values. appeared first on DIY MFA.

When I started my indie career, I made a lot of mistakes with my email list. I knew I needed a mailing list, but I didn’t know the best way to get addresses legally and ethically or what to do with them once I had them. Sure, I knew I had to send subscribers a newsletter, but how often should I write to them? What should I say? “Yeah, still working on the book…?” I might be new to email marketing, but even I recognized that I could only rephrase that sentence a finite number of times before the eyeballs started rolling. 

I’ll presume you’re not in the dark about why you need a mailing list or how to get started with one, but you might like some list-building best practices. Here are six tips on building a mailing list that I wish someone had said to me when I was starting my writing career.

1. Write to your email list at least once a month 

Once a week is better. Write less frequently than once a month and you risk people forgetting who you are and why they signed up for your list. Trust me, I learned this the hard way. As a profound introvert, I felt like a newsletter should contain…well, news. And I didn’t judge the contents of my life to be especially newsworthy. When I finally sent a second newsletter, who opened my email? My mom. Two college roommates. The others I could count on one hand.

A tip I learned from Kristin Oliphant helped me get over the newsworthiness hurdle. She recommended reframing the idea into it’s just an email you’re sending to a friend. Once I latched on to that idea, the prospect of writing a monthly author newsletter became much less daunting. 

2. You don’t have to impress, they like you already

Your email subscribers likely signed up for your list because they either stumbled across your website and liked what they saw, or they read a short story or another sample of your work and want more. You’ve already sold them. What they want is you, so don’t be afraid to share yourself.

3. It’s okay to experiment

So much advice insists that success demands brand consistency. I fretted and stewed over what my emails should contain and how I should present the content. I let perfect become the enemy of good. When you’re new to email marketing and you don’t have many subscribers, aim for good enough.

This is a marvelous time to experiment. Think about what newsletters you subscribe to and you enjoy. How often do they send messages? What do you like about them? What’s their tone? Can you borrow an idea here, an idea there, and give them each a twist to make them your own?

If your email service provider permits it, try some A/B testing and see which messages generate the best responses. Now’s the time to test and refine, so when you ‌scale up, you’ll have a winning formula in your pocket.

4. Readers want a novel, novella, or short story for a magnet.

A reader magnet is the literary equivalent to the free cheese cube at the grocery store that entices shoppers to buy a half-pound of the fancy stuff. Food samples may have disappeared from the landscape in the age of coronavirus, but the reader magnet freebie is still going strong. 

But like free food, not all magnet samples are created equal. While some sources will tell you that any freebie—a piece of research, your character profiles, or a deleted scene from your novel—is good enough, the truth is that new subscribers want a completed piece of literature.

You’ll get far more sign-ups with a novel, a novella, a short story, or a handful of poems than you will with other magnet types. Perhaps after a year or more, once you’ve built a relationship with your readers, they’ll be receptive to taking a peek behind your writing curtain, but if you’re writing fiction, such material isn’t strong enough to convert browsers into subscribers.  

5. Use promo services to get into the community

Use that reader magnet novel, novella, or short story with services like BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, or ProlificWorks to find new readers. Authors on these sites regularly put together group giveaways and other promotions. Participating authors agree to share the promos via social media and their newsletters, exposing your work to thousands of potential fans. 

These services work especially well for genre fiction, as the promo organizer often customizes them to a single genre. But sometimes they’re organized around other principles, like inclusion in Kindle Unlimited or promotional sale prices. You can also reach out to individual authors through these services and agree to swap mentions of your books in each other’s newsletters. This is a great technique to employ before a launch. 

6. Prune your email list regularly and ruthlessly

This one hurts, but think of it as a vaccination against spam. 

You’ve worked hard to collect those email addresses and watching those subscriber numbers rise definitely boosts self-confidence. But look into your stats and you’ll see plenty of people who seldom open your emails. In the long run, these people hurt your reputation as an email marketer. 

Services like Google regularly evaluate the reputations of every email sender to determine who’s sending spam. Even if your subscribers verified their desire to be on your list via double opt-in, if they don’t open your emails, they tarnish your reputation as a sender. Over time, these slights can hurt your ability to acquire future subscribers. 

To avoid this, do two things on the front end.

1. Set up an automation “onboarding” sequence. This is a brief series of emails you write ahead of time that get sent automatically when a subscriber first joins your list. Send these a few days or a week apart, when you’re still fresh in the subscriber’s mind. This trains the subscriber to be on the lookout for your messages, and the increased open rate signals to the email service provider you are not a sender who should get sent to spam. 
2. Second, assess your list every month. If you identify subscribers who haven’t opened a message from you in six months (or less, if you prefer), give them one final chance to stay on your list. Use a clear heading like, “Do you want to stay on my list?” If they don’t open it, delete them. Furthermore, if your list is large enough, you may be paying to carry these subscribers. Why pay for dead weight?

There’s even more information on how to build your email list in the DIY MFA Pixels to Platform Course. Trust yourself and be fearless! A beautiful new world of reader relationships awaits you. 

Helen J. Darling writes and publishes contemporary women’s fiction at her imprint, Bricolage Books. She published her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, in January 2018. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com, on Instagram, Twitter and on Facebook. 

The post Email 102: Building Your Author Newsletter List appeared first on DIY MFA.

Consider me a colleague happy to share her hard-learned wisdom with you. If I were starting over again in indie publishing, I’d do a number of things differently. In future posts, I’ll share with you some of the decisions I regret and why, in hopes you can learn from my mistakes. 

The first thing I’d do differently if I could start again? Not publish until I had at least three novels in a series.

Conventional wisdom IS wisdom

When I first considered indie publishing, I heard this advice: Don’t publish until you have three novels ready to release. Given the work it takes to write just one novel, I thought, This is ridiculous. I can’t imagine waiting so long. Traditional publishing doesn’t operate this way. Is self-publishing really that different? Won’t having a book on the market allow more readers to find me?

Patience pays

Solid reasons exist behind the argument to wait to publish. Primary among them: the market is absolutely flooded with books. There are currently over six million e-books on Amazon alone. Writers also compete with tons of exciting content on television, in film, in video games, and (in ordinary, non-pandemic times) sports and other leisure pursuits. What that means for the single-title-publishing author is that your book, regardless of how good it might be, will drown in a sea of content. 

If you have one book in the market, readers may love it and leave a positive review, but then they need a new toy. If you can’t offer them another book, they’ll move on to someone else’s. And if, like me, you take a year or eighteen months to produce another work, that’s a ton of time for a reader to forget about you. Maybe you were lucky enough to capture some of those initial readers on your mailing list. If so, terrific! But the truth is that only a fraction of your readers will actually sign on to your mailing list. How many authors do you read regularly? Are you on all their mailing lists? Nope, thought not. 

We live in a binge culture. How do you consume TV? If you’re like me, you’d rather wait until the final episode of Homeland is released so you can watch the entire season in three days. Readers behave no differently. Having a series of three or more books gives an engaged reader somewhere to go, and improves your long-term viability in the market. Conventional wisdom in the indie world goes something like this: if readers read you once and your book is good, they’ll like you. If they read you twice, they’ll remember you. If they read you three times, they’ll stay with you, eager for your metaphorical Season Two. 

If you can get a reader to read three of your books, it probably won’t be a hard sell to get and keep them on your mailing list. Then a periodic update–whether once a week, or once or twice a month–will keep you on their radar screens and anticipating your next release. Outside of this model, you start from ground zero every single time you launch a book, and launches are difficult and draining. Don’t make more work for yourself.

Algorithms and visibility

The more readers progress through your series, whether via direct purchase or by Kindle Unlimited borrows, the more the algorithms begin to work in your favor. David Gaughran’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know about the mechanics of algorithms and how to make them work in your favor to increase your visibility, so I’ll leave it to him to share the finer points with you, but this multi-title release strategy is essential to gaining traction in digital marketplaces. 

Development time

Another advantage to completing a short series before releasing the first book is that it gives you time to work with your characters and produce a cohesive product. By the third book, you have insights into your characters that you didn’t have the first time through. I know that if I could go back and rewrite my first book, there’s so much I’d be able to put in that I just didn’t know the first time. 

A fruitful practice might be to draft three books (say, 30 or 40K words each), one after another. As you write the second one, you get important distance from the first story while at the same time broadening your knowledge of your characters, practicing your craft, and honing your voice. By the time you’ve drafted the third book, you’ve figured out how to write a book, where your process challenges are, and how to work through them. In other words, you can now recognize patterns in your own work. 

As you begin to revise and flesh out the first story, you can bring that wisdom to your first book. At the same time, that perspective will aid you in leaving Easter eggs and weaving interesting threads and subplots throughout the series. Map out a series on paper all you want, but when you’re writing, things don’t always go to plan. Crazy things happen. Whole characters show up out of nowhere. Pausing before you hit the “publish” button allows you to refine the entire package into a polished cohesive unit, and for that, your readers will thank you.

Writing a book is a long and difficult process, and exercising patience at the end of that process demands real discipline from the writer. But trust me: I’ve been there, and the discipline is worth it. Your reward will come in increased visibility, a more devoted readership, and improved long-term success–things every writer wants. 

Helen J. Darling writes and publishes contemporary women’s fiction at her imprint, Bricolage Books. She published her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, in January 2018. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com, on Instagram, Twitter and on Facebook. 

The post Don’t Do What I Did: Mistakes in Indie Publishing appeared first on DIY MFA.

Helen is the author of two humorous women’s fiction novels: Terms and Conditions and I’ll Know Me When I Find Me. She is also the resident self-publishing expert and columnist at DIY MFA.

Helen worked in publishing for twenty years before acknowledging she’d like to write something herself. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she dabbles uncontrollably in hobbies from photography and painting to gardening, carpentry, and home renovations. She reads three or four books at a time. She also keeps bees. That’s why she takes so long to write her novels.

You can learn about her latest distractions by joining her mailing list or following her on social media. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two children, a codependent beagle, and a cat who owns them all.

In this episode Helen and I discuss:

• How working in academic publishing led to Helen’s writing career
• The flexibility that comes with self-publishing
• How self-publishing has changed
• Why writers choose self-publishing over traditional
• The two most important people on your self-publishing team
• Choosing the right people for your self-publishing team
• An overview of the editorial and publishing process
• The main parts of a book launch

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Helen J. Darling

Helen J. Darling is the author of two humorous women’s fiction novels: Terms and Conditions (forthcoming) and I’ll Know Me When I Find Me.

She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two children, a codependent beagle, and a cat who owns them all. Helen worked in publishing for twenty years before acknowledging she’d like to write something herself. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she dabbles uncontrollably in hobbies from photography and painting to gardening, carpentry, and home renovations. She reads three or four books at a time. She also keeps bees. That’s why she takes so damned long to write her novels.

You can learn about her latest distractions by visiting her website, joining her mailing list or following her on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and BookBub.

Terms and Conditions

An ambitious single woman. A lifelong goal within reach. Will Manhattan’s unexpected challenges turn her fantasy into a disaster?

After ten lackluster years in a dead-end job, Jane Desmond can’t wait to pursue her enduring ambition of a career in the glittering NYC literary scene. But the city starts throwing her curveballs the moment she arrives and what’s worse, her nervous mother, petrified for Jane’s safety, won’t stop texting her. Determined to reclaim her sanity, Jane posts a selfie challenge to prove to her mom she’s living the dream.

As she struggles to find an apartment and blows critical interviews, her online pics tell a very different tale. Caught up in a web of social lies, Jane digs herself deeper with every update. Worried that she doesn’t have what it takes to make it in the city and on the verge of calling it quits, she races the clock to get her life together before her parents and friends learn the sad truth.

Can Jane get comfortable in her own skin before the deception comes crashing down around her?

Witty and endearing, Terms and Conditions follows Jane as she discovers the thrill, the challenge, and ultimately, the joy of living truly for herself.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 304

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 304: An Inside Look at Self-Publishing – Interview with Helen J. Darling appeared first on DIY MFA.

In an effort to cope with the madness I declared a personal quarantine from social media, but just before I did, I came across a recommendation to help us through this mess. I think it’s brilliant, so I wanted to pass it along.

Keep a pandemic journal

If dwelling on the topic seems like adding an extra helping of misery to an already-full plate, let me offer three reasons that might make the project easier to digest.

1) Historians of the future will thank you

These are unprecedented times. Historians, whether professional or amateur (like your future kids or grandkids working on a school project), depend on primary sources to fully understand the ways major events shaped our lives. Consider writing down your day-to-day experience in the richest detail you can. Dig in. Complain with the ferocity of two Wal-Mart shoppers battling it out over the last 4-pack of toilet paper. Ask the scary questions bouncing around in your head, particularly if your alternative would be to voice them in an environment where others around you, especially children, might get frightened. It’s a safe place to vent your real fears and frustrations. Which leads me to:

2) It may help you cope with stress

Research shows that for certain categories of people, journaling your daily experience may help you mitigate depression and anxiety in the long run. For people who are “not suffering from PTSD, and not a first responder in the midst of living daily crisis [or] trauma, and [for whom] is writing feels cathartic and helpful, then writing about this is probably a good idea,” says Dr. Jennifer Plumb Vilardaga, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist affiliated with Duke University. 

She theorized that writing the experience down gives a person distance that allows them to form a new relationship to that experience. It becomes a narrative that can be evaluated, rather than a closed loop of thoughts in the person’s head. Dr. Plumb Vilardaga further noted that evidence suggests it’s particularly helpful to write about what feels meaningful and vital to the person in the context. For example, noting details such as, “I needed to get exercise, so I took a walk today,” or “I bought groceries for elderly Mrs. Smith next door so she didn’t have to go out,” may offer outsized benefits over writing about something more generalized or external.

That said, if you try journaling your experience and it doesn’t feel helpful, stop and seek professional help. Many therapists are offering virtual sessions during this time so check out your area’s options. Or, Dr. Plumb Vilardaga recommends Betterhelp.com as a source for online therapy. The site offers sessions with licensed, accredited psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, and board licensed professional counselors so you can get support without violating important social distancing behaviors.

3) It can help you maintain your writing practice

I’m finding it hard to concentrate these days. If I can get 100 words on my WIP, I chalk that up as a win. Maybe you feel the same way. Writers who value a daily practice but struggle to maintain it under the current circumstances may find journaling their experience a good alternative that keeps the words flowing as they seek a new normal. 

I wish you all luck as you care for loved ones, pursue your work, and maintain your writing in these unprecedented times. Stay safe and well.

Helen J. Darling writes and publishes contemporary women’s fiction at her imprint, Bricolage Books. She published her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, in January 2018. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com, on Instagram, Twitter and on Facebook. 

The post Finding it Hard to Write? Consider Keeping a Pandemic Journal appeared first on DIY MFA.

As a reminder, SMART goals are:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time bound

As I mentioned in my 2020 resolutions post with some of my DIY MFA colleagues, I want this year to be a big year for making connections and building relationships. In both indie and traditional publishing, the author has to do a lot of marketing. Lots of authors (including me) shy away from this obligation, but marketing doesn’t have to be sleazy. In fact, when done right, it’s just about having friendly relationships with other people. But the year isn’t going to be only about marketing, of course. I have creative and business management goals, too. So here are my 2020 SMART goals. Feel free to email me throughout the year and ask me how I’m doing!

Marketing:

By December 31, 2020, I will:

1. Double the size of my mailing list

I’ll also make sure these are engaged readers, because good mailing list health means periodically pruning from the list those folks who haven’t opened your messages in a while. We’ll talk about why in a future post.

To achieve this goal, by Sept. 30, 2020 I will:

• Write, edit, and release a new reader magnet.
• Write, edit, and release two new short stories for Kindle Unlimited.

2. Establish and maintain friendly relationships with 3-5 writers in my genre

I want to learn from these colleagues and support their work.

Creative:

By December 31, 2020, I will:

1. Complete a second draft of a new novel

To get there, by June 30, 2020, I will complete a SFD of a new novel.

2. Map out a new 7-part series in a new genre

I like to read in diverse genres, and one of the benefits of indie publishing is that you have greater flexibility to experiment in other genres. I’m thinking about trying a suspense series. I’ll let you know how it goes!

3. Identify 175 new lessons about storytelling

I’m fascinated with the mechanics of storytelling in all its forms. I particularly want to discover what fiction writers can learn from film. To that end, I’m working on a project over at itshelendarling.com: I’m on a quest to watch 100 movies, study 50 screenplays, and read 25 books in my genre in 2020. It’s an aggressive goal but I’m trying my best. Come on over and see what I’m learning.

Business:

I love the business aspect of indie publishing, but as with any job, there are parts that are less fun than others. There’s a reason I didn’t go into accounting for my day job. However, accounting is a vitally important part to growing a business well, and I’ve got a bad habit of letting my accounting tasks pile up. This year, I’ve got two business-related goals:

By the end of each calendar month, I will:

1. Log all of my sales receipts and expenses, and review a P&L report in order to better track my expenses.

2. Track all of my marketing campaigns and compare their ROI to make sure I’m spending my money in the most efficient way possible.

Do you have any goals for 2020, creative or otherwise? Drop me a line and tell me about them. And good luck!

Helen J. Darling writes and publishes contemporary women’s fiction at her imprint, Bricolage Books. She published her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, in January 2018. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com, on Instagram, Twitter and on Facebook. 

The post Self Publishing SMART goals for 2020 appeared first on DIY MFA.

At DIY MFA, we believe goals or resolutions should be S.M.A.R.T.. That is, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. For more tips on how to craft resolutions that stick, check out Episode 23 of DIY MFA Radio. And let us know what you resolve to do in the year–or month, week or even decade ahead!

1) Manuela: Make Writing for Fun a Habit

Between graduate school work and regular work, my creative writing has definitely taken a backseat this year. While I’ve been writing a lot (hello, term papers), I haven’t dedicated a lot of time to writing for fun. So, for 2020, I resolve to fit more creative writing time into my schedule. Specifically, I want to focus on cultivating a regular writing habit, not necessarily with the goal of publication in mind, but with the purpose of rediscovering just how much fun it can be to write for myself! 

I’ll start by taking a look at my calendar and pinpointing times when I can enjoy some uninterrupted writing time. From there, I will create a writing schedule and make sure to stick to it. Ultimately, I would love to have a completed poetry manuscript by the end of 2020, but, at the very least, I want to develop some good writing habits to carry me through the rest of my graduate school years. 

2) E.J.: Experiment with new digital campaign approaches

In 2020, my first fantasy series will release its final title. This signifies not only the conclusion of a major creative endeavor for me, but also a turning point in how I approach my online marketing efforts–finally, I can sell a complete box set. I can track follow-through from book one all the way to the end. And, hopefully, a complete series is a series that gains increased sales momentum. 

Sales is never the end game for me–reader relationships is. But sales still matter, and with a full series of titles in hand, it feels like a natural time to challenge myself more in this area. With experimentation in a variety of pushes across social media, Amazon, email, advertising and other promo opportunities, I hope to take significant strides toward building a lean, mean sales machine. 

And in the meantime, it’s on to start creating the next series. 

3) Bronwen: Turn tracking my writing habits into a habit

In the last eighteen months I’ve gotten really into planning—bullet journals, agendas, printable calendars, etc. It’s been really helpful for getting tasks accomplished, but I’ve always resisted planning in one area: writing. I don’t want to put undue pressure on myself, but at the same time I know a lot of time is passing with very little forward momentum.

So this year I’m using planner tools to track my writing productivity. I’ll track when I start and end phases (brainstorming, drafting, revision rounds), quantifiable counts (words written, pages edited), and set flexible quarterly deadlines for myself. Each quarter I’ll check in and see how I did, and try to figure out what worked and what didn’t.

For me, turning tracking and check-in’s into a habit will be the win. Even if I produce less writing than last year, I’ll have a record of how and why that’s the case. Then I can iterate and improve.

4) Helen: Build my mailing list and author network

I’m really fortunate that my life permits me a dedicated time to write, and my writing time never exceeds my supply of ideas (my Evernote idea file has 450 items and counting…). However, being a serious introvert, I shy away from marketing my work–especially the human-interaction part of the task. I get how important it is, but I don’t like it. Putting myself out there feels scary and icky, so I hide as often as I can. 

This year is the year I get over it. Two of my marketing-related SMART goals for this year are:

1. By December 31, 2020, I will double my current mailing list.
2. By December 31, 2020, I will establish and maintain friendly relationships with three to five writers in my genre. “Friendly” means when I email them, they’ll know who I am–no reintroductions necessary–and will email back. 

Networking to achieve these resolutions is totally a mental game. Although my anxious mind invents endless disastrous scenarios to talk me out of trying (thanks so much, creative brain…), every time I do interact with real people, I’m rewarded. In a creative career pursued in isolation, real relationships matter and I don’t want to put them off any longer. If I have to tattoo my face with a reminder that people aren’t scary, I will–but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

5) Bess: Study Writing Craft

For years, I’ve devoted almost all of my writing time to working on projects, and comparatively little to my own writing education. While I read craft books and sometimes attend conferences, mostly I’ve just been writing. This year, in addition to working on my WIP, I want to spend more time studying and practicing my craft. 

I’ll kick this off by reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and, at some point during 2020, I will also do a 100 Day Challenge — write 100 pieces of flash fiction in 100 days. Some will be good, most will be terrible, and hopefully at the end, I will have a deeper creative well and will have learned more about my own process and ways I can continue to improve it.

What are your writing resolutions for 2020? Let us know in the comments, or on social media!

The post #5onFri: Five Resolutions from the DIY MFA Team appeared first on DIY MFA.

In a previous post I described how to go about hiring an editor for your publishing team. But what do you do with an editor once you’ve hired them? How do you make sure you’re getting the best use of their time and your money?

Throwing the pile of paper (metaphorical or real) at them and saying “Have at it,” won’t yield the best result. Two seasoned editors who are authors themselves, Barb Goffman and Cindy Rinaman Marsch, offer a few tips on how to work with an editor and get the best out of that relationship.

Six tips on getting the best out of an editor

1) Start thinking about your edit long before you’ll need one

“I often will hear from authors who are hoping I can help them in the next month or two,” Goffman says. “While sometimes I can do so if I have an unexpected opening, often I’m booked four months in advance. Sometimes longer.”

2) If you’re in the earliest stages of your revision, consider an editorial assessment

Also known as a manuscript assessment, Marsch describes this level of review as “a beta read on steroids” and notes it is “an economical way to get an editor’s feedback on a full read of your work. Major problems with characters, plot, description, even style and mechanics will show up in such an assessment and give you a macro action list for the next revision.” You’ll be paying the editor an hourly rate to read your work carefully, so discuss expectations upfront.

3) Make sure you’ve taken the manuscript as far as you can on your own

Consult a reference like Self Editing for Fiction Writers to develop your writing into the strongest it can be. Consider using Gabriela’s revision pyramid to help focus your rewriting process (this will help both before and after you get your manuscript from your editor). “The better the manuscript, the faster I can get through it and the less I’ll charge,” Goffman says. “[It’s a] win-win for everyone.”

4) Be flexible

“If you tell a prospective editor that you want a line edit or a copy edit, and she looks at your sample and says you’d be better served with a developmental edit, be open to that,” advises Goffman. “Sometimes someone else can see problems in your manuscript that you can’t because you’re too close to it.” 

If receiving feedback like this feels difficult, keep in mind that the editor’s goal is to make your work the best it can be. Listening to her professional advice can save you time, money, and heartbreak in the long run. 

5) Don’t expect an editor to do a developmental, line, and copy edit at the same time

“It’s not a good idea or a good use of funds because they cost more and if I do a copy edit, for instance, on a section that you end up cutting or revising based on my developmental suggestions, then all those copy edits were for naught. And if you write anything new based on my suggestions, those pages won’t be line or copy edited, so your manuscript’s quality will be inconsistent.” 

6) Talk to your editor

Both Marsch and Goffman stressed the need for good communication in order to achieve the desired results. This can cover everything from observations about your writing’s strengths and weaknesses, to timely notification of delays, to detailed conversations about their preferred format in which to receive your manuscript. 

“Engage in getting to know [your editor] and express what you are interested in,” Marsch says. “Often that discussion has to happen after a sample edit, when you both have something ‘on the table’ to engage with. I have a hard time answering a hypothetical ‘Will you change my style?’ when I haven’t seen what the style is.” 

Marsch notes her ideal author-client “has read my reviews and used Amazon’s Look Inside feature to dip into my own writing as well as some of the titles among my client list. Ideal clients ask good questions and let me know what they want an edit to accomplish—what they perceive their needs are.” 

Editors can work wonders on a manuscript, but remember, they’re humans, too. Treat the relationship as a partnership, with both of you working towards the shared goal of making your work the best it can be. “[It’s] a personal relationship,” Goffman observes. “Not every author and editor are a good fit, and that’s okay. If you find the right person for you, you’ll hopefully have a long working relationship.”

Helen J. Darling writes and publishes contemporary women’s fiction at her imprint, Bricolage Books. She published her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, in January 2018. Her latest novel, Terms and Conditions, was published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com, on Instagram and on Facebook.

The post Six Tips on Working with an Editor appeared first on DIY MFA.

This is silly, of course–writers are people who write–but the feeling is nonetheless real. So how do self-publishing authors cope with this problem? Where do they find validation that can reassure them in the tough parts of writing and revision?

Here are a few suggestions.

Avoid drawing comparisons

In indie publishing (as in all of life, really), you are running your own race, and comparisons are irrelevant. Cozy mystery author Laura Durham observed, “After working in the wedding industry, which is super competitive and a little snarky, I learned to keep my head down, not worry too much about what everyone else was doing, and focus on doing the best I can with my talents (and continually work on improving). I’d rather spend an hour working on craft than an hour fretting or doubting myself.” 

Romance author Maria Luis concurs. “Always remember to stay in your own lane. You will have friends who soar beyond your wildest imaginations; you will also have friends who look at your success and wonder, ‘How are they doing all that?’ Every person has imposter syndrome. Every person has self-doubt. But every person is walking the path they’re meant to be on. Enjoy the good moments. Learn from the bad. And never forget that you are living your dream–everything else will always settle into place.”

Focus on your readers, rather than yourself

Mystery and middle-grade author Alexandra Amor advises indie authors that a mindset of serving the reader helps draw the focus away from yourself. “My first book was a memoir about ten years I spent in a cult in the 1990’s, so when I was feeling self-critical or doubtful I would try to shift my focus away from myself and onto the people who would be reading the book. I tried to spend more time thinking about helping those readers and less time thinking about how my writing might be judged. Now that I’m focused on writing mystery novels, I apply the same strategy and try to think mostly about satisfying the reader and as little as possible about myself.”

Don’t try to please everyone

If you can avoid thinking about how other people judge your work, that’s terrific. They’re still going to judge it, though. That’s part of the deal. But even if you can’t avoid thinking about it from time to time, you don’t have to wallow in it. “The one thing a writer can never avoid is readers who don’t like your work, for whatever reason,” Laura Durham acknowledges. “I’ve definitely gotten nasty reviews, and even some accusing me of being immoral because I have gay characters in my books! I just remind myself that even the bestselling books in the world have bad reviews. When you get your first one-star review, check out the one-stars on famous books like Harry Potter and even To Kill a Mockingbird. It just goes to show that you can’t make everyone happy, trying to do that is a losing game, and finding your specific tribe is key.” 

Look to your mailing list

Who, exactly, constitutes that specific tribe? The people on your author mailing list, for starters. Whether your list is large or small, take comfort from this group of people who’ve had to jump through some hoops (like double opt-in) in order to say, “I want to hear more about you.” If you need a boost, reach out to them in a quick message. Ask a question you genuinely want to know about your readers and when the responses come in, continue that dialogue. This process of building relationships with your biggest fans is the less-visible part of the task of serving your readers, but it’s nonetheless important. These people support you and want to see you succeed. Take care of them, and they’ll take care of you.

Think about your long-term vision

There are very, very few overnight successes. Most success stories don’t show the months and years of practice of both writing craft and marketing skills that build expertise in publishing. Go back to your SMART goals and see how you’re doing. Sometimes recommitting to those goals, or checking in and discovering you’ve actually achieved them ahead of time, is all the boost you need.

In a related vein, Maria Luis lives by advice on goal setting she heard it from bestselling romance author Staci Hart at the Indie Tea conference. “Although she was speaking in terms of new releases, I truly believe that her words can be applied to any moment within working as an indie author. First, what is your goal? Think big picture, the magical, unicorn moments. Write it down. Second, what are your actual expectations? Whether it comes down to release sales, backlist ROI, reader engagement for a new newsletter, etc.–what do you actually expect to happen based on the work you’ve done, and the stats you’ve seen thus far? Write this down too. Third, what is the base minimum that needs to happen for you to continue on this journey? Be honest with yourself. Also write this down.

With every release, I still write down my three answers to these questions. At the start of the year, when I’m planning my goals for each quarter, I do the exact same thing. It allows me to keep a level head while still reaching for the stars. If there’s one person I could hug for helping me to keep my head on straight, it would be Staci Hart. I’ve never forgotten this bit of advice and I don’t think I ever will.”

Alexandra Amor echoes the need to focus on the long-term, as well as the helpful attention to craft. She says she doesn’t try, “to be perfect. That’s not easy, but I think it’s really important. I believe that as artists we should give ourselves permission to grow and improve and we can only do that if we complete a project, send it out into the world, as scary as that might be, and then start the next one. Perpetually working on perfecting one book is a trap many writers fall into, but in my opinion that strategy inhibits development of craft.”

Take heart: for many indie authors, impostor syndrome lessens over time. Perhaps it’s because controlling your publishing pathway leads to a sense of empowerment, or perhaps it’s because indie authors tend to build close relationships with their readers and those relationships reinforce the notion that the writer is creating something of value to others. But if you’re doubting yourself now, remember that if you’re still writing, you’re not an impostor. You cannot be. Writers are people who write.

Helen J. Darling writes contemporary women’s fiction. Her first novel, I’ll Know Me When I Find Me, was self-published in January 2018. Her follow-up novel, Terms and Conditions, will be published in November 2019. You can connect with her at itshelendarling.com and on Instagram at @itshelendarling.

The post Five Tactics to Battle Impostor Syndrome appeared first on DIY MFA.