Icing the Literary Cake


The world a writer has to live in makes my head spin
The world a writer has to live in makes my head spin. You'd think 'all' you have to do is get the words down. I say 'all' as that can be hard in itself. The muse needs to play nice. The words need to fall right, not be a game of literary Jenga in which they collapse on the page in an incomprehensible mish-mash.
If only.
Do you want your work out into the world? You want reads or sales or just eyes on the prize? Well, as Irene Cara once said in Fame, this is where you start working!
It can be overwhelming, actually. When once I would scan my Facebook profile, I now have two profiles and a page. One is for personal stuff, one is for my wider writing universe (if Marvel can have their MCU, I can have a WWU) and my page is for fans and information. I also have multiple twitter accounts (but one is for the barbers salon I own - there's a Facebook page for that too), Instagram, Snapchat and more. I used to play games on my phone. I used to have free time. Plus, there's the Wattpad app which I'm addicted to. I try to answer as many questions, respond to as many comments, and thank as many new followers and readers as I can.
But there's only so much time in the day, and it's not enough. Because more than anything, I want to WRITE! I am a writer, after all. 
There're a great many ways you can cast your work into your own WWU
There're a great many ways you can cast your work into your own WWU. Of course, there's the mighty Wattpad, but there's also Self-Publishing. Once upon a time, this was traditional publishing's poor cousin. In fact, about twenty years ago I appeared on Sky TV to debate traditional vs digital publishing. It was never going to take off, they said.
Hmmm... Yes... Ok...
Now, anyone and their dog can publish their work. In fact, their postman's dog can do it, if they have access to an electronic device. Phones, computers, and tablets can be used to publish your story. So why would you want to dip your toe into the very choppy sea?
There's a multitude of reasons. Making your book available on Amazon. Holding an actual, real paperback in your hand. It's a pretty cool feeling. But how do you get there? How much does it cost? How hard is it?
Well, it can cost either nothing or a fortune. It can be quite easy or extremely hard work. It all depends on how far you want or need to go.
Two important things need to be done first. You need the work to be edited, either by you or someone else, and you need a good cover. Many people get away with neither. Their story is raw and resplendent with spelling and grammar mistakes. Some just want the story up. They don't care if it's up to any particular standard. That's fine, if that's what you want. But if you want your story to be noticed, to be liked, make the effort. Have it edited. Create a cover (or have one created). They say don't judge a book by its cover, but... yeah. We're human. We can't help it. So make it the sort of book YOU would want to buy or to read.
How much do you have to pay for these services? Again, it varies wildly
How much do you have to pay for these services? Again, it varies wildly. A cover can be roughly $150. An edit $500. There's plenty of free options for image editing, such as PIXLR, to create your own cover and the results can look amazing. For editing, you can go through it yourself (if you are, I'd recommend leaving the story for a little while so, when you re-read it, you have 'fresh' eyes). You may think it's perfect as it is. It may well be.
And then you have uploading it to the Internet and giving others the chance to see what you've created
And then you have uploading it to the Internet and giving others the chance to see what you've created. Again, it's a windy path with numerous routes veering off. You can collar your friends on Facebook and Twitter to hold a launch party. You can do blog tours and guest posts. A simple Google search will bring up lots of sites willing, for free, to promote your story.
What of the places to publish it? Without wanting to repeat myself, again, there's a few. Amazon is, of course, the best known. Smashwords is another one. You can use one or both, as you wish. Each of them has an extended distribution service where your book will get into readers everywhere. Potentially, at least.
What did I do? Initially, I used Amazon
What did I do? Initially, I used Amazon. Format your book appropriately (Google is your friend) and visit http://kdp.amazon.com. I had the edit done and had a great cover, which I'd made myself. Now, it doesn't appear so great. Now, I've had one professionally created which kills it. I uploaded my book and waited for the money to roll in. Well, not quite. It doesn't work like that. I tweeted and Facebooked and started on this long road called Social Media. I also joined Smashwords to expand on what Amazon could offer at the time. The wonderful author Dean Lappi had read my book (Sin) and showed it to the person running the author partnership he was part of. Happily, I joined and was lucky to meet some fabulous authors. The original group didn't quite work out and many of the original members (including myself) created Myrddin Publishing which still goes strong today and is incredibly supportive.
With their help and with my expanding group of friends and fans across the world (a very small place when you have a smartphone) I was lucky enough to reach #1 in Psychological Thriller and #3 in Psychological Horror. Sin even made it to #1 in a Goodreads list of Books That Get You Hooked, above both The Hunger Games and Harry Potter!
 Sin even made it to #1 in a Goodreads list of Books That Get You Hooked, above both The Hunger Games and Harry Potter!
And time went on and I wrote more. In fact, time began to move faster than I. My work (I work full time) was becoming much busier. I bought a barbers salon. I had another child. I couldn't keep up with the business, as that was what it felt like, of promotion. I wanted to write, not spend all my time pushing what I'd already written.
I discovered Wattpad, of course. Since then, my self-publishing journey stalled, somewhat. I have enjoyed being part of the Wattpad community and a Wattpad Star so much, I've felt like it's the real home for my writing. Needless to say, however, I've still delved into the 'other side.' I wrote Mr. Composure, Suffer the Little Children and Whispers for the movies The Purge: Anarchy, Sinister II and The Boy, respectively. Each of these, I uploaded to Amazon as ebooks. It is so straightforward to do, it made sense. I have yet to do the same for my Little Mermaid retelling And the Meek Shall Walk, but that's purely a time issue. I am stacked out with writing projects at the moment, but I will.
There's also the paperback issue. I'm in the middle of tossing the coin for who to go with. I've used Lulu for Dark Places, but I'm not overly happy. They've built on their platform more recently, but at the time of producing the paperback version (which is wonderful to hold in your hands and is, admittedly, great quality), they didn't have much in place for distribution. Amazon have CreateSpace which is very easy to use and, among others, there's Lightning Source. I've created an account with them and have purchased some ISBN numbers for my books but haven't had time (there it is again) to sort out the templates and book settings to produce a paperback through them.
 I've created an account with them and have purchased some ISBN numbers for my books but haven't had time (there it is again) to sort out the templates and book settings to produce a paperback through them
Over the past couple of years, each of these platforms has moved rapidly, eager to give more to the ever expanding world of self-publishing and the options are seemingly endless. People have differing ideas on what works and what is right for them isn't necessarily the same for you. For me, I'm enjoying writing and not so much worrying about (other than Wattpad) going further. I'd like to, but... well, you know.
Even now, on Wattpad, I like my stories to have the edit, the second pair of eyes (or third) and a decent cover. It's not 'self-publishing' but it is still millions of potential eyes on my prize. My Precious. A piece of me.
Writing is a real journey and the actual act of producing that story can be the easy part. Don't let everything else take over or you can feel overwhelmed. Enjoy what you do. I know I do. Everything else is icing on a very tasty but long in the baking cake.
 Everything else is icing on a very tasty but long in the baking cake

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