Is there a 'right' way to publication? Author Adria J Cimino shares her success story.

Hi all!

Lovely to see you here. If you check out my sidebar, you'll see I've read 28 of my 120 books for the goodread's challenge. Many are Paris inspired which is what led me to today's post. 

An author who writes Paris-inspired novels contacted me through goodreads and I've been very happy to check out her blog. Recently I read her interview on Huffington Post where she recounted about her publication journey. 

Everyone has their unique 'publication' story. It's a topic I'm always interested in, so I invited Adria to visit my blog and share her thoughts re Indie and Traditional publishing.

So settle back and enjoy what Adria has to say.

An Indie Path to Publication

By Adria J. Cimino

Is there a ‘right’ way to publish?

I used to have a literary agent. I still remember my delight the day I signed the contract, naively thinking I was on my way to success. Months passed. Years passed... 

The glory days of self-publishing arrived, and I watched the books of self-published authors and those publishing with smaller houses climb the rankings. My agent agreed to publish my debut novel as an e-book through his agency’s imprint but told me I would be on my own in terms of marketing.

As my indie friends continued to progress, I found myself stagnating. My novel, “Paris, Rue des Martyrs,” was literary fiction and I soon learned that many readers of literary fiction prefer print books to e-books. So much of my audience actually wouldn’t even have access to my book!

My literary agent was set on the e-book path, and our strategies simply diverged. The decision seemed obvious, yet felt like free falling. Drop the agent. And so I did, going for the free fall. A scary proposition for someone like me, who had imagined that traditional path to publication for so long.

I could have self-published, but another idea was cooking in my mind. There were plenty of new authors around who found themselves in situations similar to mine. And that is how Velvet Morning Press was born.

Fellow author Vicki Lesage and I joined forces, pooled our skills and formed this small indie publishing house, aimed at publishing our books as well as the books of others. Why not take all that we learned in editing and marketing our own books and apply it across a broader scale? We moved forward, full speed ahead.

We re-released “Paris, Rue des Martyrs” in paperback as well as in e-book format. We published a multi-author short story anthology, “That’s Paris: An Anthology of Life, Love and Sarcasm in the City of Light,” and released my second novel, “Close to Destiny.” 

Next up, on April 17: “Legacy,” a short story anthology including award-winning author Kristopher Jansma and New York Times best seller Regina Calcaterra. 

Through my work marketing my own book and now my work with Vicki Lesage at Velvet Morning Press, I realize that there isn’t one “right” way to publish. One thing is certain though: More and more authors are turning to some form of indie publication.

How to make the decision?

Here are the positives/negatives I considered before choosing what path to take:

Indie

Positives: shorter time to publication, higher percent of royalties, larger role in decision making

Negatives: difficulty getting the attention of major media, difficulty getting into some bookshops

Big Publisher:

Positives: easier access to major media, greater access to bookshops

Negatives: lower royalties, cash advances are lower than in the past, longer time to publication

And what’s equal? Publicity. Unless you’re J.K. Rowling, chances are, even if you are published through a large publishing house, you will have to pitch in to some degree on your own marketing.

So there you have it, my story and a few tips so that you can embark on your story.

Happy Writing!

Thanks for visiting with us today Adria. So...if you'd like to check out Adria's books, here are the links. I'm currently reading 'close to destiny' and am enraptured.

 BOOK LINKS:

 “Close to Destiny”:

http://www.amazon.com/Close-Destiny-Adria-J-Cimino/dp/0692346945

“Paris, Rue des Martyrs”:

http://www.amazon.com/Paris-Rue-Martyrs-Adria-Cimino/dp/0692335072

“That’s Paris”: 

http://www.amazon.com/Thats-Paris-Anthology-Sarcasm-Light/dp/0692340114

Adria J. Cimino is the author of novels “Paris, Rue des Martyrs” and “Close to Destiny” and is co-founder of indie publishing house Velvet Morning Press (http://www.velvetmorningpress.com). She also is a contributor to short story anthology “That’s Paris.” Prior to jumping into the publishing world full time, she spent more than a decade as a journalist at news organizations including The AP and Bloomberg News. Adria is a member of Tall Poppy Writers (http://tallpoppies.org/) a community of writing professionals committed to connecting authors with each other and with readers. In addition to writing fiction and discovering new authors, Adria writes about her real-life adventures in her blog “Adria in Paris.” (http://adriainparis.blogspot.com/). You also may learn more about Adria and her work by visiting her website at http://ajcimino.com/ or following her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Adria_in_Paris.

• If you're published, share a little of the path you took to achieve your goal.
• If you're still seeking publication, how is your  journey going?Check out Velvet Morning Press.
• Did Adria's story help you in any way?

 

Frustrated with self-publishing? Shocking facts! Things are starting to look up, starting with Mardibooks. And Michael Di Gesu cover reveal news!

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because I could end up with egg on my face if you detect any mistakes lol! Go on...find one...

Most of us have done it -- picked up free e-books, bought 99c e-books, bought blogger friends' self-pubbed books -- sometimes a worthwhile read, often not. I don't think self-publishing quite works yet, even though it's been around for a long time. Due to market saturation, there is a quest to find REALLY GOOD SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS. How do we work through the maze of books riddled with bad grammar, punctuation, plot holes, unsympathetic characters, and get to the good stuff?

I like to read -- I read over 200 books a year. I review books, but only the ones I can say nice things about.

Shocking fact number one! 
I'm not a big fan of e-books ((claps hands over red face))). Would still prefer to prop a print book onto my knees late into the night and read, Luddite that I am. But e-books on the kindle or phone do have a place in my life -- they are great to fill in any downtime throughout my busy day. But...

Shocking fact number two!
To be cruelly honest, most of the e-books I start, I don't get past Chapter 1. If I do keep reading, I often put it down before the finish as I just lose interest in a shaky plot or bad/no editing or characters I couldn't care less about. Even poor formatting puts me off. I know I'm not alone.

Shocking fact number three!
Our best-selling classic authors throughout history used a truckload of editors. Margaret Mitchell, beloved author of Gone With the Wind re-wrote her Chapter 1 sixty times in longhand, gulp. So...what makes us think we can do it all by ourselves, or with the help of our family or friends who won't like to tell us our story sucks? In self-pub forums you learn a lot about attitude. One beauty was from an author who said she writes her first draft and doesn't have time to waste editing. If an editor buys it, it's their job to fix it. Hmm. Wonder if she has editors knocking at her door? At the very least, I'd like to see a bright badge on e-books I buy which proclaims: "EDITED BY..."

I've discussed this problem with other writers/authors, and many of them share my opinion. The self-published amongst my friends use multiple beta readers, CPs, paid professional editors and book cover gurus. Costs them about $1300 to produce an e-book. Then...the promo begins. 

Not-so-- Shocking fact number four!
Authors hate self-promotion. Readers hate self-promotion.

Self promotion is not loved by anyone, I'm sure, well, maybe by a few. However, how can you sell your book when there are thousands of new books up on Amazon et al each year unless you promote, promote, promote? Even if you're a debut author with a publishing house, you won't get much help with promotion and have to find your own way to tell people it's out there. Sadly, many authors think self-promotion means drowning their followers on social media in countless twitter hashtags about their book, countless facebook blasts, fb 'like me' requests...these just annoy, annoy, annoy when our twitter and facebook feeds contain little else other than author promotions, sometimes running one after another. And most of these authors make it clear it's all about them, nothing reciprocal about it.

I read a great post by Anne R Allen this week who calls this self promo Twitter-Fritter and Facebook-Fail.

Shocking fact number five!
Readers now know we can't trust reviews, so there goes that 'Get 10 Reviews and you'll sell tons of books' good old standby. I, along with most other readers, want to have some excellent e-books recommended to me so I can actually finish them. And if I ever go the self-pub route, I want to do it properly.

And hello, happy fact...I feel a ripple of hope.

IS THIS THE WAY FORWARD FOR SELF-PUBLISHED NOVELISTS?

A forward-looking publisher is Mardibooks. Like regular imprints, it only accepts mss with commercial potential. It does the usual editing and pre-press work and puts up the result on Amazon and Kobo without a fee. It covers its overheads by charging for the production of an e-book or paperback on a cost-plus basis. Mardibook authors then market each others’ work collectively on their own social platforms. Whereas familiar services like Lulu and CreateSpace deal with authors one-to-one, Mardibooks claims to create a ‘cross marketing’ platform: one to many.

I like the sound of this. Is this a viable model for a global collective of the future?

Then there's self-publishers' review sites. They review and endorse selected books.

B.R.A.G. Medallion looks good.

Compulsion Reads also has possibilities

Nash Black for mystery and ghost tales has an awesome website

There's always Indie sites out there, polishing their swords, ready for a good fight. Here's one I follow...

Indies Unlimited Direct from their website: 'We are at the beginning of a technological revolution in how books are written, published, marketed, purchased, and read. This site is dedicated to the independent authors, publishers, reviewers and readers who are on the cutting edge of that technological revolution.' At this stage, I am pretty impressed with what I've seen on this well-set up site.

These are just some I have discovered. There must be many more. I am yet to test their reviews, but maybe some of you have already. If so, tell us about it.

I am indebted to Write to Done for the inspiration and some information in this post. Go here to read the full post.

***
We all know what a crucial marketing tool is the cover!!! What a lot of work needs to go into this to create that most important first impression.

And here is the BEST news! Beloved blogger, the gym-honed Michael Di Gesu, has illustrated a cover for Siv Maria Ottem. They will reveal this wonderful work of art on Monday July 29. I'm a town crier ringing the bell - 'Don't miss this!'

I loved Michael's cover reveals during the A-Z. They were INSANE to use one of his favourite words! I'm not going to try to emulate his talent here. 

So, lucky Siv. Her book is due for publication in October. Swing by both Michael's and Siv's blogs on Monday and give them the old ooh aah!

I just hope, selfishly, that this won't result in an explosion of cover requests for Michael. That would mean Michael would have less time to swap biscotti recipes with me, swap manuscripts, swap travel stories, swap positive mantras for future publication...what a hell that would be for me!! But, on second thoughts, go for it, send Michael your requests for a cover and fall into line.

• What is your e-book experience as a reader or an author?
• Would you value a site where you could make a selection of great e-books, well edited?
• Can you add to my list of potential sites to de-clutter the e-book universe?
• Don't forget to visit Michael and Siv on Monday.

What happens when you read trashy magazines! Madeleine Maddocks confesses all...

Many, many thanks, Denise, for inviting me for an interview on your blog, especially now so many of us in the creative writing, blogging world are taking the plunge and self publishing our work. I am DELIGHTED to be here.

Great to have you Madeleine. Firstly, I'm interested in how you got the idea to write this particular story.

For me, ideas for stories come from many different things, like a snippet from a radio programme, something read or heard, being just a couple of examples. For this story, I was at the hairdressers looking through the Celeb photos in Hello and Ok magazine (I stopped reading the spiteful text that goes with them, long ago). Then I came across a different Women’s magazine that included an extremely heart-warming story about a young woman and her soldier boyfriend. I was left with such an unexpected warm glow.

Aha, so you had a magic moment when reading trashy magazines.

Yes, isn’t that the truth! Usually the stories in those magazines seem quite depressing and tawdry, so you can imagine this one left quite an impression. As I thought more about the story, I had a ‘light bulb moment’, as there was one relatively trivial element in the account that got me thinking in that What If? way that writing craft books encourage. Without providing spoilers, I can only say that I realised that I could create my own characters, who suffer a similar tragedy for a novella/short story and explore this element as the twist in my tale. This makes it not quite romance, more realistic fiction with romantic elements.

Yes, there’s quite a difference between the ‘romance’ genre and a ‘romantic’ element to a story.

Now what was informing your plot?

I am fascinated by social psychology and personal relationships and so this story was a great vehicle for exploring what happens when the going gets tough. The ‘who stays and who goes?’  catalyst. The subject is also very topical and full of that all-important conflict, which modern stories demand.

Are you from a military background Madeleine? If not, how did you manage to sound so authentic?

I realised that as I did not come from an army background, I knew nothing about soldiers or what happens to them when they are injured. So I spent the next few days researching these areas, much of which was sobering and heart breaking. I wanted to reflect both sides of opinion about the military. Then I sat down and started to write, mulling over my characters, what they were like, what were their agendas. The rest evolved after edits and revisions. I put the story away for a while, as it was longer than stories in magazines (though it’s occurred to me that it might have made a great serial!)

What happened when you dragged your manuscript out of the ‘bottom drawer’ ?

When I came back to it again recently, it was then that I decided I would launch it as my first e-Publication. After blogging for almost 2 years and submitting stories and challenge pieces, I have recently enjoyed some successes, so I felt more confident to put my story ‘out there’. I am embracing the advice of Neil Gaiman: ‘Learn to write by writing. Make mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something’.

How did you settle on your book cover design?

I wanted something simple that encapsulated both the romantic element of the story and the army theme. The UK flag and the silhouette came into my head immediately, so I trawled the royalty-free image websites (for example, freedigitalpress.com) and the design began to materialize. Then I realised the cover wasn’t gritty enough for the story content, so I then played about with other elements and designs and asked my blog audience to vote for their favourites. The feedback/ comments given were invaluable. So I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who took the trouble to vote and comment.

I’ve seen other authors do this, asking reader’s opinions about the cover design. It’s a good way to get readers interested in the upcoming book too!

Thank you Madeleine. It is a pleasure to host you today and I wish you happy sales!

About the Author

With a creative imagination and an imaginary friend to keep her company, Madeleine Sara spent much of her childhood writing stories and making her own books. These days she enjoys blogging on the topic of creative writing, textile crafts, magazine editing and website design. She now lives in Devon, England with her husband and two cats.

Ultimate Sacrifice is available here:

 at Amazon.com   Amazon. UK  Amazon FR     Amazon de

Go here for more launch posts for Madeleine's book.

ALSO, we have India Drummond guest posting at RomanticFridayWriters today. We would love it if you dropped in and said hello.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - HELP CRASH AMAZON ON DEC. 1 - HELP TALLI ROLAND

TALLI ROLAND will have her book The Hating Game available as an ebook on December 1^st on AMAZON . Read a review here. This is before the launch of the hardcopy in 2011.

 Please join Talli’s BlogSplash! 

Here’s a quote from her post:

On December 1, the e-book version of The Hating Game will launch ahead of its UK hard-copy launch next year!

So I'm dreaming big. Wouldn't it be great if my debut novel by an indie publisher made it into the top ranks of Amazon Kindle sales? It might sound crazy, but it's amazing how quickly your book can move up the ranks if a number of people purchase it on the same day. And with an ebook, there are no distribution issues. Anyone, anywhere can buy it!

On release day -- December 1 -- I'm looking for bloggers (and Tweeters and Facebookers) to help with a Blogsplash to spread the word!

If you sign up, all I ask is that on Dec 1 you post a short paragraph about what I'm trying to accomplish and The Hating Game blurb. I'll send you all the content so you just have to cut and paste! I am aiming to have one thousand bloggers take part (I know, I know -- but it might happen! I'm thinking big!) so anything you can do to spread the word would be FANTASTIC. Just fill out the form below (on her site, once you click the link to BlogSplash) or email talliroland@gmail.com to take part.

“Here's where you come in. It's amazing how few copies it takes to rocket your sales rank on Amazon. Wouldn't it be incredible if people bought copies of The Hating Game ebook -- all on Dec 1 --- and brought it up the charts? If for one brief moment in time (or maybe more), The Hating Game was an Amazon Kindle bestseller?”
So, can a debut novel by an indie publisher take over Amazon? We shall see!

JOIN THE BLOGSPLASH!