Self Publishing Tips

Today, I looked up the royalties I’ve earned from the first month of sales of my first novel, The Contenders.

Drum roll, please!

Bah-da,
bah-da,
bah-da,
bah-da,
bah-da,
tah!

$39.28.

{little dance}

Almost forty dollars!

{pumps fist in air}

Why am I dancing and pumping my fist over such a small amount of money?

Because that’s forty greenbacks for a product of my creativity.

That’s forty George Washingtons for a story that I made up.

Do you realize how incredible that is?

Today is a day for celebrating!

Here’s the breakdown for those of you who like numbers.

July 17 – 31, 2015 Royalties for The Contenders

8 ebooks sold through Amazon.com x $2.07 royalty (list price: $2.99) = $16.56

8 paperbacks sold through CreateSpace x $2.55 royalty (list price: $8.99) = $22.72

Total = $39.28

For you indie authors out there, notice how the royalty for my $2.99 ebook at $2.07 is not far off from the $2.55 royalty for my $8.99 paperback. As many indie authors are proving over time, ebooks are the way to go for generating revenue. Still, I love reading paper books (and so do many readers) and will always offer a printed version of my fiction.

I earned nearly $40 in my first month of sales (really, just two weeks since it was released on July 17th). Who knows what next month and next year and the next four years will bring?

No matter what the totals are, my creative endeavors are now making me dough.

I’M STOKED. {dances and pumps both fists in the air at the same time}

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is also the founder of Prelaw Guru, a law school application consulting company, and the author of The No B.S. Guides for prelaw students.

Photo by Talia Felix

In my last post, I talked about what I consider to be the most fun part of the self-publishing process: designing your novel’s cover.

In today’s post, I’m sharing what I consider to be the hardest part of self-publishing: writing your novel’s back cover.

Now, some indie authors plan on only offering their novel as an ebook and so they might think this doesn’t apply to them since their book does not have a physical back cover. Au contraire, my friend. Even if you are offering ebooks, you still need back cover copy. The back cover copy is what you’re going to use for your book’s description on Amazon, iBooks, and other online stores.

As you can see above, the back cover of my first novel, The Contenders is pretty short. 155 words.

The back cover was hard to write. Really hard.

Even harder since I wrote most of it before I wrote my novel.

What’s that? you say. You wrote this before you wrote your novel?!

Yes. You saw the title of this post. You knew this was coming.

I don’t remember which writing teacher told me to write my one-page summary before writing my story–it may have been Brian McDonald, from whom I learned many of my great storytelling tips from–but it’s sound advice.

If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?

Your one-page summary is the road map for your story. Without it, you’ll be lost.

This gets back to the age-old plotter vs. pantser debate that so many writers like to have.

I’m not a pantser. I don’t write by the seat of my pants, without an outline, and hope I get there.

I am also not a plotter. I’ve tried outlining my story act by act, scene by scene; and for me, I no longer want to write the story after doing all that. All the fun and discovery is gone.

I’m somewhere in between the pantser and the plotter. I don’t know what that’s called. Plotser? Pantplotter? Anyway, I digress.

So, although I found it incredibly hard to do, I wrote my one-page summary before writing my novel. It helped me figure out who my main character was, what she wanted, and what obstacles stood in her way. Without knowing these essential elements, I couldn’t write my story.

Did my summary stay the same the whole time I was writing my novel?

No. Sometimes you can have a great map but you find out there’s a better route than the one you originally found. That’s okay. Writing is rewriting. I revised my summary throughout the time that I wrote my novel. It took me seven drafts to land on a summary that stuck. I then transformed that summary into a snappier and more concise back cover. That was my eighth draft.

So, how are you going to write the back cover for your novel?

1. First, you have to figure out who your main character is.
   I don’t know about you but this takes me the most time. I spend hours free-writing in a journal from my main character’s point of view until I figure out who she or he is.
2. Next, what’s your main character’s goal?
   Truth be told, I’ve come up with many story ideas where I don’t know what the main character wants. Without a clear want or goal, you don’t know your main character and you don’t have a story. Figure it out! For me, I discover my character’s goal once again through free-writing from his or her point of view.
3. Next, what is your main character’s need?
   This is different from the want. For example, in The Contenders, Eunice wants to win The Contest and beat her archenemy Thad, but what she really needs is to learn empathy. Think this is hard to figure out? You’re damn right it is. I went ’round and ’round on this with lots of free-writing and brainstorming with my husband who knows a thing or two about story. It was super hard. So, I did what most of you will do. Skip to #4.
4. Finally, what stands in the way of your character’s goal?
   What is preventing your character from getting what he or she really wants? What stones can you place in your character’s path? What stones can you throw at your character throughout the story? I find this part hard but not as hard as #3. How did I figure it out? More free-writing in my journal but not in first-person. This time I started off with many “What if…?” scenarios and then wrote whatever came to mind. Some stones will be good, some not. After you have some major stones laid out, go back to #3 and work on the character’s need.

Once I had an idea of these four essential elements, I then strung them together in a rough one-page summary.

Don’t worry if your first draft sounds terrible. Mine sure did. Over time, you will refine it. That pile of coal will turn into a diamond after many revisions, revelations, and edits. Again, it took me eight drafts to get to my final.

It’s hard work to write your back cover before you write your novel. No doubt. But if you write your back cover first, then when you are ready to publish your novel, you will have a concise summary to use for your back cover and/or your book description in online stores. Huzzah! Relief! Happiness!

On the other hand, trying to write a one-page summary for your novel after it’s finished is like trying to shove a 20-foot python into a one square-foot box. Impossible to do and you end up pissed off, sweating like mad, and full of bites.

Avoid that metaphorical python. Put in the hard work in the beginning and you will reap the rewards in the end.

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is also the founder of Prelaw Guru, a law school application consulting company, and the author of The No B.S. Guides for prelaw students.

I’m so excited to show you the cover of my middle-grade novel, The Contenders!

I have to say–having a cover designed for your novel has got to be the most FUN part of the self-publishing process.

I mean, you get to see your novel conceptualized in different fonts, drawings, and photos. If you’re a visual person like me, it’s incredibly exciting to see a visual representation of your story. And, except for giving feedback, you don’t have to do any of the work. What could be better?

Here’s how I went from nothing to awesome cover in just three weeks.

First, I searched on Google for “book cover designer.” That turned up a ton of links. I must have perused about twenty different design sites before I found one that had covers that I liked and where the design fee fit my budget. I chose Kit Foster of Kit Foster Design.

Second, I emailed Kit. His assistant, Robert Chazz Chute, who is also an author, got back to me quickly with a cover brief form to fill out. It only took me about an hour to complete the form and send it back, along with a sample chapter from my novel.

Third, I paid half the fees in order to get started. Since I’m publishing The Contenders as both an ebook and a print book, I went for the two cover package that cost 150 British Pounds. That translates to roughly $237 US, which is a slamming good deal.

This is where the fun begins.

It took about a week for Kit to get back to me with four different designs. It was so exciting to see them! I sent my feedback to Robert, who then passed it on to Kit. Another day or two later, Kit sends me four more designs with my suggested tweaks. This was even more exciting to receive. From this batch, I chose the winner which is the cover you see posted above.

From there, Kit worked on the print cover using the back cover copy I had sent earlier. It took another week or so with back and forth feedback and tweaks, and the print cover was finished. I paid the other half of the fees at this point.

To recap, I sent my initial email to Kit Foster Design on May 2nd, and my ebook and print book covers were finished by May 22nd.

Three weeks total.

Awesome, huh?

Thank you, Robert and Kit! I love my book cover. I also love how easy it was to work with you.

So, if you’re self-publishing your novel, and want a professional cover design, check out Kit Foster Design. Hope you have as much fun with the process as I did.

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is also the founder of Prelaw Guru, a law school application consulting company, and the author of The No B.S. Guides for prelaw students.

Had I been born somewhere from the 16th to the 19th century, I would have been a printer. Why? Because I have an inordinate love for letterpress, invented by Johann Gutenberg in the mid-1400s.

Did you know that letterpress was the primary form of printing and communication for more than 500 years?

That means that letterpress was the primary method of publishing books. Even just touching greeting cards printed by letterpress thrills me to no end. The thought of having a whole book printed by letterpress. Wowee zowee!

So, with my crazy love for printing, it’s funny when I think that my first novel was almost never published.

Despite admiring the printing efforts of so many artists and craftsmen over the years, I did not even think of self-publishing my own creative works.

You see, my first novel, The Contenders, was written nearly five years ago in 2010. It is a middle-grade novel for kids aged 8-12. After my manuscript was critiqued by four trusted and skilled readers, and revised many times, I felt it was ready to go out to agents.

I queried fifteen agents. Three asked for the full manuscript. Two of the three got back to me with kind “no’s” but with notes of encouragement to keep writing and to query them again when I had something new.

Disappointed, my manuscript went onto a shelf in my closet. Dejected but not beaten, I continued to write fiction, though nothing I wrote got anywhere near the state for human consumption that I had reached with The Contenders.

I’d like to say I grabbed the bull by the horns and decided to publish my manuscript when I saw that self-publishing was becoming more popular. But no. Even after self-publishing three prelaw books–the No B.S. Guides–I still did not get it through my skull that I should self-publish my fiction.

It is only because of the insistence of my husband that The Contenders is finally going to see the light of day. Marcus encouraged me at the end of last year to take the manuscript back out. He reminded me that it was a great story. That everyone who read it loved the main character. That it was worth publishing myself.

I thought I was smart. Or at least of average intelligence. But I didn’t figure out what I should have done with this story that I had worked so hard on until someone close to me pointed out what was so obvious right under my nose.

I can be my own printer.

Well, not exactly. I can be my own publisher. I can hire a printer to do the dirty work.

I don’t need an agent to validate my writing and deem it “sales worthy.”

I don’t need a publisher to buy my manuscript and take it to press.

I can do it myself.

The Contenders will be released this summer. It will be available as an ebook and as a printed book. It won’t be set in letterpress, but that’s okay.

My story will finally be available for anyone who wants to read it. And that, thrills me to no end.

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is also the founder of Prelaw Guru, a law school application consulting company, and the author of The No B.S. Guides for prelaw students.

Photo Credit: Cranky Pressman.