Hire an Editor!

As many of you know, I like to review books. I'm willing to read almost any genre and this is one of the reasons I enjoy being a tour host for Innovative Online Book Tours.

I also enjoy supporting Indie authors. This is a tough time in the world of publishing. Getting an agent, getting your book published by a major house--these things are hard to come by. But there are so many talented authors out there! It's good to see them rise up and do well as Indie authors.

However....

A message to all authors who choose to pursue their dream of being a published author and self publish their work: hire an editor.

Suck it up and pay the money to have someone who knows what they're doing look over your manuscript. Nothing is more annoying than seeing beginning writing mistakes in a book you've paid for. It's one thing to have a crappy story line, but a whole other thing to have sloppy writing, too. While both can be fixed, the easiest to work on is the basics.

Cut the word "that."
Don't argue with me. Just do it.

Stick with "she said" versus "she said loudly."
Let your dialogue explain how loud it is. Make your reader work their imagination a little bit.

Watch out for things like, "he stood up." Drop the up. The only way you can stand is up so it's implied.

I guarantee if you start with those three things, you'll clean up a lot of things and make your writing tight.

Then hire an editor. An editor's job is to catch the pesky mistakes like the ones I just mentioned and to make sure your story is going in a believable, solid direction. The story shouldn't wander around like the muddy back roads of the Texas Hill Country, nor should your characters switch emotions every two paragraphs.

Indie authors get a bad name when they don't take care of the basics.

The Business of Writing: Some Thoughts on KDP Select

I've been chatting with several Indie writers lately who are curious about how I'm faring with the KDP Select program. I've actually only been apart of it since Oct. 1, so I still have roughly sixty more days to go before I can make a fair determination.

So far, so good....

Obviously, I'm not a millionaire yet.

But then again, I've never expected to be. I will say that my sales are decent, but I can't help but think that may be due to some good word of mouth. My book, Bayou Myth, was free on Amazon for over two months prior to me joining the Select program. This was because of marketing strategies I employed that had nothing to do with making money, but were about getting the book out there. Because of this, I've gotten a lot of great reviews which I think help with sales. I can honestly say that I've made more money on Bayou Myth than I have through my publisher, Lyrical Press, for my first novel, Nephilim. Of course, part of that is that I have a little more leeway with marketing and the ability to raise and lower the price as I see fit.

So will KDP Select help me in the long run?

Hmm...right now I'm going with maybe. Like I said, I'll know better in sixty days whether or not it was worth it. Remember, with KDP Select you can only sell your book digitally through Amazon. That means no Barnes and Noble and no Smashwords with all of their outlets.

Anyway, I am going to take advantage of KDP Select's freebie days. With Halloween being just next week, I will offer my little tale of voodoo and horror, Bayou Myth, for free Oct. 30-31. Enjoy!