Our special guest today is author Wynne Channing, who's sharing some great tips on how to avoid some of the pitfalls of self-publishing. Her new book, What Kills Me, is a fantastic new vampire story and will be available for purchase for only $0.99 during this tour. Wynne has also provided a prize for one lucky commentor which includes a signed bookmark with butterfly charm and an e-copy of What Kills Me. Details are at the end of the post. This giveaway is for US & Canada only.
An author's redo: Three self-publishing mistakes that I regret.
It
took me less than six months to write my YA paranormal adventure What Kills Me. Then I put it away for
more than a year unsure of what to do with it. One day, the books editor at the
newspaper where I work showed me how to submit my e-book to Amazon. It looked
easier than setting up a Facebook profile.
It
is not. But I was fooled enough to launch myself down the path of Indie
Author-dom.
And
now I have the honor of appearing on The Speculative Salon as part of my first blog tour! I’d like to share a few words of
advice to anyone thinking of taking this amazing, exciting, and scary step.
Okay,
the title is a little misleading. I can’t really regret my choices since I’ve
learned from them. And they are not mistakes. What is wrong for one author can
be right for another.
But
here’s what I would redo if I had a time machine or could mail myself a letter
like that nonsensical romantic film starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
Here are three “mistakes” that I would redo:
Wait to start promoting your book: Hang
on, Wynne. I haven’t finished the book yet. How can I promote it? Yeah, that’s
the conversation that I had with myself...which I regret. It’s never too early
to start talking about your upcoming project. Sign up for Twitter. Identify
yourself as [insert name here, author of the upcoming amazing book..., etc.]
Start amassing followers. Connect with other writers and book bloggers. Start a
blog. Tell people about your progress. Do a cover reveal. Collect emails so you
can inform your new fans exactly when they can grab a piece of your literary
genius.
Attempt to format your book yourself if you
are techno-twit: Here are some things I could have been doing in the three
days that I spent trying to format What
Kills Me for publication: have tea and cake, plot the sequel, set myself up
on Goodreads, work on my Amazon author profile, have tea and cake. Instead, I
had a bald spot from scratching the same spot above my brow and an e-book with
no working hyperlinks and strange spacing. By all means, try it. There are a
lot of sites that offer great advice on how to do it yourself. But if it is
making you want to throw your computer, hire an editor or formatter. Then go for tea and
cake.
Be humble: Modesty is one of my
father’s tenets. Don’t brag, he would always say. Growing up, I didn’t need to
brag because I had subterranean self-esteem and as an adult, my
self-deprecating humor helped me at parties.
But
it prevented me at first from talking about What
Kills Me. “Oh, I wrote a little something.” Uhh, no. I wrote a novel. I
chose to publish it myself. And within two months, it won a reader’s choice
award and almost 100 people have praised it with reviews. Once I started openly
talking about the project, it invited dialogue. I met a lot more people,
received great advice, and invaluable referrals.
Be
proud of your accomplishments. Writing is hard. Whether you’ve started your
first chapter, or you’ve just pressed “publish” on Amazon, tell someone. Hell,
tell me! I will say that I am proud of you and please know that you deserve the
praise.
Contest: Ok everyone, you know the drill. Leave us a comment and you'll be entered to win the lovely bookmark and ebook of What Kills Me. Please include an email address where we can contact the winner who will be chosen at the end of the tour on September 25th. Again, this contest is for US & Canadian residents only.
What Kills Me Links
What Kills Me is now $.99 on Amazon and Smashwords
About the book:
An ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the
vampire race. So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with
blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary
destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally,
the vampire bladesmith Lucas, must battle to survive. How will she convince the
empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a
creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs
summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals?
About Wynne:
Wynne Channing is a national newspaper reporter and young adult
novelist. Wynne loves telling stories and as a journalist, she has interviewed
everyone from Daniel Radcliffe and Hugh Jackman to the president of the
Maldives and Duchess Sarah Ferguson. The closest she has come to interviewing a
vampire is sitting down with True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard (he didn’t bite).
She briefly considered calling her debut novel “Well” so then everyone would
say: “Well written by Wynne Channing.”
Connect with Wynne
