7
Feb

Are You Thinking Of Self-Publishing?

   Posted by: Steve   in Personal, Reference, Self Publishing

When our Newfoundland and Jack Russell went berserk to announce the arrival of my package from Lulu.com, I was instantly more excited than they were. How often do six perfect-bound paperbacks with your name on the cover show up on your doorstep?

For me, using a Print-on-demand service to self-publish my special project turned out to be a lot of fun. But before you decide to go this route, be aware of your ultimate goal. Do your research, and be realistic with your expectations.

Naturally there are exceptions to every rule, but the odds are that self-publishing will not make you famous. It won’t make you much–if any–money, and it probably won’t get you noticed. It isn’t a shortcut that will allow you to bypass the system. It won’t land you a major book deal or get you on a best seller list. If the goals for your project include any of those reasons, the self-publish route is not for you (remember Heinlein’s TANSTAAFL—There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch).

None of those were factors when I created “The Three Gifts” as a gift for some family members. When I saw that Lulu would even satisfy my miser’s genes (the whole project was under forty dollars for six copies), I knew they would be ideal for what I had planned.

If you’ve considered all the factors and self-publishing is still something you want to do, here are a few pointers that may help you on your way.

I won’t go into proof-reading techniques, other than to say if the words aren’t right, everything else will be a waste. If your book is for public consumption (mine was not), you may want to consider paying a freelance editor to give it a once over for you (Lulu has an editorial service you could use, but I can’t say how good they are, I haven’t tried them). Either way, once your satisfied with the actual words of the project, it’s time for the formatting.

With Lulu, you are responsible for not only the words themselves, but also exactly how they will look when printed. Lulu does provide a cool “cover wizard” that meets the basic needs for the outside of your book, but everything else is up to you. Using “The Three Gifts”–my forty page booklet of three short stories–as an example, here are the key points in my layout template:

Paragraph Style Templates

  • Fonts: I used Times New Roman for everything except for the Title, which was Arial. Note that if I do this again, I’ll be using Palatino Linotype as my primary font face.
  • Lulu Title: 16pt title bold, centered, 10 pt author, 8pt copyright
    Lulu Main: 11pt font, 1.5 lines spacing, Justified alignment, Widow and Orphan control 3 lines.
  • Lulu Chap. Title: 16pt font, Centered alignment, Capitals font effect, 2″ spacing above.
  • Lulu Chap. Begin: 11pt font, 1.5 lines spacing, Justified alignment, Display drop caps first character for two lines

Page Style Templates

  • Lulu Title: A5 (5.83″x8.27″), 1″ margins, Right and left layout, No header, No footer.
  • Lulu Dedication: A5, 1″ margins, Only right layout, No header, No footer.
  • Lulu New Chapter: A5, 1″ margins, Only right layout, No header, Footer centered page number
  • Lulu Page: A5, 1″ margins, Right and left layout, Header Turn off “same content left/right”, centered author name left header, centered book title right header), Footer centered page number same content left/right.

I use OpenOffice.org Writer as my word processor, so your mileage may vary, but for me getting the styles just right was the toughest part. Once that was behind me, it was just a matter of making sure that every page and paragraph of the book was assigned the appropriate style.

In order for me to have full control over the formatting, I used OpenOffice to export to PDF rather than allowing Lulu to do the formatting for me. Whether you do it my way or allow Lulu to convert a word document for you, be sure you check every page, particularly the end of each paragraph for any formatting glitches. Also remember that certain pages should always be on the right (see the “New Chapter” style as an example).

Once the print layouts are generated, Lulu will present you with various options for how you want to make your publication available. In my case, I wasn’t worried about the rest of the world seeing it so I didn’t put “The Three Gifts” in the public directory, but that option is available to you for free, should you choose to do so. Lulu allows you to set the price as you see fit, showing you how much the overall price will be, and how much of a cut they get from each. I was impressed at how reasonable Lulu’s pricing was, I’ve bulk printed manuscripts at Kinko’s that cost more.

One last piece of advice: before you order in bulk, be sure you buy a single proof copy to make sure everything looks right to you. After I got the first one, there were a number of changes that I ended up making before I was ready to make my bulk order.

For a fantastic article on the pros and cons of print-on-demand and self-publishing, take a look at The “Writer’s Beware” blog at http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/.

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23
Jan

Thoughts Of A New Writer – Do You Feel Unlucky? Well Do Ya, Punk?

   Posted by: Steve   in Personal, Thoughts and Meanderings

 Tell me if any of this rings a bell:

  • When sitting in traffic, you always seem to be in the slow lane.
  • When standing in the checkout line, yours always seems to have the most people in it.
  • You have a friend that’s won a couple hundred dollars with scratch-off lottery tickets, but you’ve never won more than a buck or so.
  • You’re a writer, reading about writers getting published, but so far not only have you not been picked up, but you keep getting form rejection letters (if any response at all).

Based on the reasoning of Clayton Caston, the dour CIA statistician in Robert Ludlum’s book “Ambler Warning”, you were able to relate to many, if not all of the above.

Would you believe that has nothing to do with you just being an “unlucky” person?

I really love it when I’m reading a fun book like “Ambler Warning” and I stumble across a nugget of wisdom that makes me stop and think. When I read this particular one, I had to share it.

The reason so many of those hypotheticals seemed familiar to you, is due to something called the “observation selection effect”. As Ludlum explains through his character Caston, there are a certain number of people in check-out lines at the store. Because the longest line has more people in it, it is statistically more probable that ANY person checking out will be in that line. It’s not a matter of luck, it’s a matter of probabilities.

The same inference holds true on the the other situations as well. You see your friend as luckier than you are because he/she has a winning scratch-off ticket, but that’s only because you haven’t observed that they actually play the lottery way more than you do. In most cases they only seem luckier because they skewed the odds of a winning ticket by purchasing way more than you did (and in order for the lottery to make as much money as it does, in most cases those winners have lost much more than they’ve won).

So what did I take home from all of this?

There are a large number of us out here that are writers. Those of us that are beginners and are in search of agents far outnumber those who have found one and sold their novel profitably. The fact that we see others getting the contract, but not us, isn’t because we’re unlucky. To paraphrase Ludlum, The laws of probability say that any given writer is more likely to be in our category than in the other.

Don’t get discouraged and think if only you could get a lucky break, you’d have a best seller. Be like your lottery winning friend, and skew the odds in your favor. Keep putting yourself out there, in as many ways as possible. The more rejections you get, the more times you’ve tried. The more times you try, the closer you get to your goal.

Make your own luck. As Machiavelli said in “The Prince”: “…he who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest.”

Oh yeah, and Good Luck!

1 Comment
17
Jan

Yon Wench Doth Make Me Cry

   Posted by: Steve   in Personal

OK, I didn’t actually cry, but I did laugh until I was in tears a few times. The images I keep replaying in my mind from last night’s visit to the New American Shakespeare Tavern will stay in my memory for a long time to come.

The troop did a re-imagining of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and their performance lived up to every bit of the hype I had created for it in my mind.

My wife and I had seats in the balcony, on what resembled old wooden kitchen chairs. A rail ran along in front of us at knee level, where we juggled our plates of wonderful English food (Sheperd’s Pie for me and Cornish Pastry for her), and a pint of marvelous ale. On the stage were simple props–nothing polished or modern–a simple table, a wooden edifice with “Canterbury Tales” written across it, and some rough wooden boxes of varying sizes. There were tables on the floor below, but we, being mere peasants, were in our rightful place. 

From the opening of the first act, I couldn’t help but be awed by their perfectly timed poetry, and the way these actors brought to life a story that was already six hundred years old.

If ever you find yourself in Atlanta, The New American Shakespeare Tavern is a must stop for you. We’re already planning our next visit.

Perhaps one day my writing will be worthy to reach out and touch the hem of greatness I witnessed last night. Can you imagine writing something so special that the retelling of it in the year 2600 could still bring joy to the people who live there?

One more thing: Rivka on your harp? We LOVED you!

Their website: http://www.shakespearetavern.com/index.php

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