Self-publishing, The Hunger Games, & Selling Out

Tip of the Day: We want to know if you have questions for us. If so, head over to Kristina's post from yesterday and comment! :D

What do self-publishing, The Hunger Games, and selling out have in common? A lot more than you might think.

I fully admit it - two years I ago I would have told you self-publishing was for failures (or small churches and historical groups looking to publish their own histories for a limited audience). I would have rolled my eyes and told you that I would never, ever consider self-publishing because traditional publishing was all that mattered.

2012 Megg would like to tell mid-2010 Megg, "You're a sheltered, close-minded idiot."

Self-publishing is a different beast than it was ten years ago. With costs at practically nothing, anyone can slap anything they want up on the web. But here's the kicker:

Those of us that want to succeed will work our asses off to make sure our product is the best we can make it. We will work hard to promote ourselves. We will recognize writing and publishing as two separate businesses, leaving the emotion for the first draft and implementing the business sense on the publishing side.

Source: http://bit.ly/J6EYWJ

This is where I think The Hunger Games steps in as a great analogy. Katniss and Peeta taught us that even though we're forced to play a rough game (I think everyone would agree that traditional publishing isn't for the weak), we can find ways around the strict rules. We can find fans (in our case, readers) who will support us. We can win and change the entire game in doing so.

This is what self-publishing has done. The game isn't over, far from it. We're just rewriting the rules and gaining the respect of our readers at the same time.

But sometimes with winning comes change. I won't get into the plot lines of Catching Fire and Mockingjay because I know not everyone on the planet has read them (you should if you haven't). Sometimes an indie gets the notice of the big boys. If traditional publishing comes knocking, should a self-pub give them the finger and move on?

No.

Now some self-pubs might call me a traitor for that. Too bad.

In my viewpoint, moving from self-publishing to traditional publishing isn't a crime. I also don't look at self-publishing as a stepping stone to traditional. I see a new model of publishing emerging.

Authors, like myself, can now weigh the pros and cons of deals and we can decide whether to accept or reject them.

It's not about who holds the power. Moving from self to trad is simply coming to a mutual decision about whether or not an author's work is something that will resonate with a wider audience.

That's it. It's not about who's better than anyone else. It's simply a matter of pure economics and the flavor of the day.

If I was offered the right traditional publishing deal, would I take it? Depends on the terms, really. I'm open to exploring any option. I'm also open to walking away from something that isn't worth it. It isn't my goal to tell people, "Ooooh, I got a trad deal." So what? If the deal isn't worth my time and money (because I'd be giving up a lot in royalties to take a trad deal), then I am okay with walking away.

Publishing is a business that provides people access to a form of entertainment. It is not here to fulfill an author's wildest dreams. The reading public does that. If a reader can escape through your book, then your wildest dreams have been fulfilled. If your only concern is seeing a copy of your book on a shelf at Barnes & Noble, then you're not looking at writing the right way. Writing is a creative outlet for those of us with wild imaginations and good grammar. There simply isn't room for all of us on the shelf at your local bookstore.

And guess what? That's okay too.

Ask A2A

Tip of the Day: This shirt is awesome ->

You can get it HERE.

It's ASK A2A DAY!!! What's that you say? It's a day for our readers to ask us anything at all (writing related, lol. We don't do religion and politics.) and we'll address it in blog posts in the coming weeks. We've got a lot of knowledge between the five of us:

• 5 MG and/or YA writers
• 1 Traditionally and 1 indie pubbed
• 2 teen librarians
• 1 editor

And we've all been through the querying and agent hunting process. So if there is anything you've bee dying to know or hoping we'd blog about, now is the time. You can either leave your questions in a comment on this post or if you'd rather stay anonymous (we won't mention names) e-mail us at author2author.blog @ gmail.com.

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Do you Book Fest? (or Catch the Festival Fever!)

Tip of the Day: Anyone in the greater Rochester, NY area must come to our Teen Book Festival this Saturday!

Last Thursday, Tina talked about which author events are generally worth an author's time. One type of event she didn't mention are Book Festivals. I guess they could be considered similar to "Author Fairs," but I'm not sure; hopefully someone will weigh in with their opinion on if these are a "must" or "bust."

What I do know is that the Rochester Teen Book Festival has grown and grown over the past seven years, and there are thousands of teens who attend. Through the promotion and publicity for the event, the attending author's names are spread across the county, and much of Western NY. Authors now ask the Fest organizer if they can come, instead of her having to pursue them. Part of it is, from what I hear, because of how well the authors are treated by the organizers.

But some authors still say no thanks when they are invited.

For the authors who do attend, is it worth going? Like Tina said, it is an all-day affair that takes away from writing/family time. Some publishers do pay the authors' travel expenses, but some do not, so for a long trip that can be pricey and a lot of books would need to sell for it to be worth it financially.

If the authors want to connect with teen readers, they will often succeed at this event. But if teens have limited money to spend and can't buy ooks no matter how much they love an author and her presentation, is it worth it?

And if you are an author with a limited audience/brand new book without a following yet, some authors may worry that no teens will attend their breakout sessions which can be stressful.

Yet during the autographing session at the end of the day, it is hard not to get excited at all the teens who are into books and authors and reading!

What do you think about Book Festivals as worthy author events?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Making your Manuscript Beautiful

Tip of the Day: check out this post at theadventurouswriter.com about 17 Reasons Manuscripts are Rejected. My favorite is because "the book is too complicated to be published." This one is especially important for me right now, since sometimes writing mysteries I have a tendency to over think things and want to make my manuscript way more complicated then it needs to be. Reining in sometimes is just as important as including lots of great details and descriptions.

Went to see my niece's fifth grade production of Beauty and the Beast this evening, so now I have nothing but adorable images of all the cast in my head. I also don't have much to share this week, so instead all I will say is good luck turning your "Beast" of a manuscript into a "Beauty."

According to the story, all the beast needed to turn back into a prince was the love of a woman. So going on that logic than I guess all you need to have a great story is to inject it with lots of love! Which I guess I need to do this week, especially since all I can see is all the negative to the story and it's looking very beastly to me. Maybe regrouping and then trying to remember all the positive and falling in love with my characters again is exactly what I need to do. Then the rest should flow from there.

At least let's hope so.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Psyching Yourself Out

Tip of the Day: Leila Austin at YA Highway gives us 33 things to do when you are feeling a bit angry with your novel.

I've been taking Vinyasa Yoga classes, and I find a lot of the lessons very applicable to writing. For example, I can't balance. Any pose that requires me to lift one leg, I shake like a blender and topple over. As soon as I know it's time to balance on one leg, I think, "Ugh, this is going to be hard."

And my instructor tells the class: You can't go into a pose thinking this is going to be hard. Maybe it won't be, maybe it will be. The point is to live in the moment, not worry about the next moment. Maybe the pose will be easier today, or maybe it will be harder than ever before. But you have to experience it, not label it.

I try to think of this before I start writing. I want to say, ugh, the chapter I have to write today is going to be so hard! And querying is hard, and writing a synopsis is hard. After all, I'm not wrong. I know I can't balance on one leg and I know querying is tough on my psyche. But I'm not doing myself any favors by telling myself how hard it's going to be before I start. I just have to go through the experience, taking time to curl up in a fetal position when needed.

So when I think, like today, "I don't want to write today, this scene is going to be hard," I try to counter with "Why don't you try it and see if it's as hard as you thought? Maybe the universe has something else in mind."

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Almost 1,000,000 Served on Wattpad

Tip of the Day: Make the BEST cookie bars you'll ever have - trust me, you won't regret it. Just wear your stretchy pants the next day ;)

About six months ago, I posted my first novel, Anathema, on Wattpad. I didn't know what to expect in terms of readership. I wasn't too familiar with the website or how readers would discover my work.

As of this moment, Anathema has had 987,374 reads. Crazy, I know.

So what is Wattpad?

Wattpad is an online community of writers. Anyone can upload a story to Wattpad, get critiques on their work, form writers groups,  make friends, and enhance their writing experience. Or if you're just a reader, it's a great place to find new talent!

My path with Wattpad is slightly different than most. A writer friend of mine suggested I join Wattpad and put me in touch with her Wattpad advisor. I submitted Anathema to them and was thrilled to hear they wanted me as a featured author. I agreed to post Anathema on Wattpad for six months, write a few blog posts for them, and run a contest.

It's been a really phenomenal experience for me. I've connected with so many new readers - readers I wasn't reaching through my regular outlets.

Whether you're a writer or a reader, Wattpad is definitely worth checking out. They have apps for your smartphone or tablet. You can access them online.

Now you're probably thinking... I bet Megg is making money off of this. I bet Wattpad paid her to write this post ... You'd be wrong. I'm writing it simply because I really love Wattpad and want others to check it out. No money exchanges hands between Wattpad and myself. That's right - everything on Wattpad is FREE!

I hope you take some time to check Wattpad out today. If you haven't read Anathema yet, now might be the time to do it. ;)

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

Author Appearances: A Must or a Bust?

Tip of the Day: How To Publish a Book with Simon Pulse. Betcha didn't think it was so easy, lol!

If you've ever come home from a 6 or 7 hour author event having only sold one book, you may have wondered why did I just do that? I could have spent this Saturday with my kids or writing. This has happened to me several times. So how do you know which author appearances are a must and which are a bust?

Musts:

1) Conferences

Conferences are awesome-- especially if you're speaking, presenting, or signing at one. The people that attend conferences pay to be there and are usually interested in your specific type of work. For example, Anderson's puts on a great Young Adult Literature Conference in the fall each year.

2) Book Club Events

I love book club events. I have one coming up in a week too. These events are great because you have an audience that has already read your book and will have great questions for you. Love them!

3) Skyping

Skyping with kids (whether it's a classroom, bookclub etc.) is a great way to reach out to readers without the expense of travel. I always do them for free. Plus you can totally go the professional on top/jammies on the bottom route and no one will know. :-)

4) Group Book Signings

Groups booksigning are awesome-- especially if you can promote it as a tour together. Tours tend to draw more attention and people love coming to see a big group of authors rather than just getting to meet one. And group booksignings are easy to put together. Tours are a little harder since you'll need to pick a number of locations and possibly travel out of state but still doable.

Busts:

1) Author fairs that you have to travel far to get to or they ask you to pay.

Author fairs are free events and you never really know who is coming to them or if they're interested in you're genre. They also last anywhere from 4-6 hours on a weekend. While they're fun to do (especially if you have other author friends there), they aren't a good investment of your time if they're a far drive or they cost you money. One town recently invited me to come to their author fair for a $35 fee. Generally you only sell 10-20 books at an author fair (some days even less). I'd have to sell 35 books just to break even.

2) School Visits that don't pay you.

I'm not saying you can't do free school visits here and there-- especially if it's your local library or local school and it's easy for you to slip it in your day. But having to pay for travel, arrange and pay for babysitting, and create a presentation is too much to do for free. I've been asked to give a 45-minute presentation to an auditorium of students for free and the time it'd take me to write and practice that presentation, not to mention put together slides, would take so much longer than that. Like, probably a good 10-12 hours. Sometimes it's better to just keep writing.

3) Meet and Greets that don't have a clear audience.

In the past I've gone to events where a store wanted me to just sit at a table and be available to talk to people who might be interested in books or writing. These sounded like a good idea at the time but actually doing them was a different story. You never know who is going to come in and out of the store, if they're even interested in you or your books, or if they're just looking for a bathroom. Again, one of those times I could have been writing or hanging with the fam.

4) Solo Book Signings

For your launch party of your first book (or even if you have a party for each book) they're a great idea. All of your friends and family are happy to come out and support you. But unless you are a big name author or celebrity like Lauren Conrad (who drew 800 people to her signing at my local bookstore last month),

don't spend too much time setting up solo book signings or you'll be spending a lot of time alone or have an audience of only a few people.

If you're an author, which author appearances do you find a must and which do you find a bust?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action