#IWSG November - Jemi Fraser - Pros and Cons of her publishing schedule

Hello all and welcome to the monthly write-fest that is the IWSG. Here you'll find motivation to overcome your insecurities, learn more about the writing journey, and learn the varied methods of publishing.

Alex's awesome co-hosts for the November 4 posting of the IWSG are Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria!

  Be sure to visit them and the 
Insecure Writer’s Support Group Website!!!

Once again, I've invited a guest to take over my blog. Today Jemi Fraser returns. Yes, I'm obsessed just a little with publication stories and have been from when I began blogging in 2007. I see Jemi as a pioneer as she's published the way I intend to - "now you don't see me, now you do" kinda thing! Anyway, to help other sly writers who have a truckload of books they've been writing, editing, rewriting for YEARS, I've asked Jemi to talk about the pros and cons of publishing the rapid-release way!

Over to you, Jemi! 

Thanks for having me on your fabulous blog again, Denise!

 I’m going to twist the IWSG question a bit today…Why do you publish the way you publish?

Phew! 

2020 has been a weird and wacky year in so many ways. Which means it was probably the perfect year for me to enter the publishing world in my own weird and wacky way.

 

In January 2020 I decided this was the year I was going to publish both my nonfiction book and my romance series.

 

I set up pre-order dates for Dancing With Dementia and arranged a blog tour for the end of March. You know, when the pandemic really hit.

 

It was early days in the pandemic and people were thinking we’d be more or less normal by June or July. I picked a date to release my romance series at the end of July.

I decided to release 3 books at once and then another before the end of the year. Bloo Moose has been living in my head for a while. Because I was writing a series, to me there wasn’t much point in releasing one book then waiting for a few months before releasing another. I wanted to have something else for readers to read if they liked Reaching For Normal (it’s free!).

 

I wanted Book 4 (Reaching For Balance) out before the end of the year - preferably within 3 months of the first 3. Apparently this is good for visibility on some retailers.

 

While I was finalizing 4, Book 5 started yelling at me. It was supposed to be book 6 but it changed its mind and decided it wanted to be a Christmas story.

 

Hmm.

 

Christmas stories sell best before Christmas so I decided November 10 looked like a good date. Four weeks after book 4.

 

I did mention weird and wacky, right?

 

What have been the pros and cons of my publishing schedule?

 

Cons:

•   Exhaustion (I’m also providing daily child care for family)

•   Imposter Syndrome is Strong! (who am I to think people want to read my stories?)

•   Marketing and Promo? Who has time for that?

•   Pressure to keep up the pace (spoiler alert: probably not publishing 6 books in 2021!)

 

Pros

•   Not a whole lot of time to do things like checking numbers and rankings and reviews

•   There has been some reader buy-through of the series

•   I’ve had people tell me they are excited about the series and waiting for more! (yay!!!)

•   Readers are preordering

•   Pushing myself to really focus means even more stories and ideas are knocking on my skull

•   I love my Bloo Moose folks and getting to spend time with them is fun

•   I have 2 new series ideas waiting their turn (con = they’re impatient & time is limited)

•   I have 6 books out and about in the world!!!

 

Would I do it all again? Yes! Although I’d wish for less global pandemic and more time!

 

How about you? Anyone else save up their books to publish them together? Anyone else start publishing during the pandemic? Anyone figure out how to create more time yet?

Life is short - go for the HEA! Author of Contemporary Romance (Bloo Moose), Dancing With Dementia (nonfiction), and short/flash fiction. Variety is the spice after all!

Thanks Jemi! Let's give Jemi your reactions to her post. Or...share your own pros and cons of publishing in the comments!

Seeing you're here ... think about joining us at WEP for the Christmas challenge, UNMASKED. 

Thanks!

On behalf of the WEP team -

#IWSG JUNE 2020. The Beginner's Guide to Loneliness - Laura Bambrey on changes in the #publishing world.

This month I'm continuing my guest blogs for blogger friends who've recently published. Today I welcome Laura Bambrey. I've known Laura nearly as long as I've been blogging and was delighted when I read her Facebook post when she was in the throes of excitement at having her manuscript picked up by Simon and Schuster! Go Laura! So I got onto her right away and invited her here for IWSG day.

Click HERE to access more IWSG posts

Alex's awesome co-hosts for the July 1 posting of the IWSG are Jenni Enzor, Beth Camp, Liesbet @ Roaming About, Tyrean Martinson, and Sandra Cox!

  Be sure to visit the
Insecure Writer’s Support Group Website!!!

July 1 question - There have been many industry changes in the last decade, so what are some changes you would like to see happen in the next decade?

Hi Denise and thank you for having me on your fabulous blog. It’s really exciting to be taking part in the ISWG as a debut author having been a part of the group as a blogger so many years ago - lapping up everyone’s advice and dreaming of the day!

This month’s question is a fascinating one, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it before sitting down to write. I’ve realised that if it wasn’t for all the changes in the publishing industry over the last decade, I wouldn’t have a book coming out at the end of the month! I don’t have an agent, and yet I’ve been signed by Simon and Schuster. How? Because they hold one-day open submissions slots for their #DigitalOriginals line for various genres. Having spotted this open-call on Twitter, I submitted directly to them and was lucky enough that my manuscript caught their eye.

Of course, the explosion of social media means that the distance between reader and author is now almost invisible - just a screen separating them. From the moment The Beginner’s Guide to Loneliness was announced, I’ve been chatting about it with readers, reviewers and authors from around the world. An author’s work is no longer over when they sign off their final draft and hand it over to the publisher - and that’s something I find incredibly exciting. Whether you’re traditionally published, self-published or a hybrid of the two, the opportunity to be in conversation with the book community and potential readers is right there - a couple of clicks away.

If you can get online, then you have the ability to build up a community of readers around you. But don’t worry if you’re not there yet - I’ve seen many agents and publishers openly state that it’s not a deal-breaker if you don’t have a social media presence - if they love the book, they love the book. The flip side of this is that if they love the book and you have built up your author platform as well, then - bonus!! And there’s no doubt in my mind that all these bookish conversations help books reach new readers.

So what changes would I like to see in the industry in the next 10 years? I would love for e-books to hold equal importance and respect within the industry as physical books. So many amazing publishers, including my own, pour the full weight of their creativity, talent and drive into their digital publishing arms. Awesome indie authors are riding high in the charts and have vast followings of loyal readers. It’s now time for these e-books to be recognised and included on the bestseller lists, featured in the industry and mainstream media and become eligible for literary prizes. 

Here in the UK,  changes are already afoot. 2019 saw kindle chart-topping author Nicola May championing e-books, and following a discussion between her and Philip Jones of The Bookseller - the magazine published its very first e-book chart. There’s still a long way to go - but I look forward to more positive changes within the industry over the next decade. 

A book is a book, and it shouldn’t matter how it reaches its audience.

The Beginner's Guide to Loneliness is out on 28th July and available to pre-order now!

The Blurb

The perfect feel-good read from an exciting new voice in women’s fiction, for fans of Heidi Swain, Cathy Bramley and Jenny Colgan.

Tori Williamson is alone. After a tragic event left her isolated from her loved ones, she’s been struggling to find her way back to, well – herself. That’s why she set up her blog, The Beginner’s Guide to Loneliness, as a way of – anonymously – connecting with the outside world and reaching others who just need a little help sometimes.

When she’s offered a free spot on a wellbeing retreat in exchange for a review on her blog, Tori is anxious about opening herself up to new surroundings. But after her three closest friends – who she talks to online but has never actually met – convince her it’ll do her some good, she reluctantly agrees and heads off for three weeks in the wild (well, a farm in Wales).

From the moment she arrives, Tori is sceptical and quickly finds herself drawn to fellow sceptic Than, the retreat’s dark and mysterious latecomer. But as the beauty of The Farm slowly comes to light she realizes that opening herself up might not be the worst thing. And sharing a yurt with fellow retreater Bay definitely isn’t.  Will the retreat be able to fix Tori? Or will she finally learn that being lonely doesn’t mean she’s broken . . .

Welcome to The Beginner’s Guide to Loneliness! Where you can learn to move mountains by picking up the smallest of stones…

Amazon UK link

Amazon US link

Author Bio

Laura Bambrey was born in Dorset but raised in Wales. She’s worked as a trapeze choreographer, sculpture conservator and stilt walker, amongst others, and spent most of her time collecting stories from the people she met along the way.

She has spent many years as a book blogger and reviewer of women’s fiction and now lives in Devon with her very own romantic hero and a ridiculously fluffy rabbit named Mop. The Beginner’s Guide to Loneliness is her début novel.

You can follow her on:

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on her Blog

Thanks Laura! It was so exciting to host you today. I've pre-ordered and can't
wait to read. Thank you for sharing your
insights into publishing. I wish you every success!

If you'd like to show the love to Laura, please TWEET!



The Beginner's Guide to Loneliness The perfect feel-good read https://dencovey.blogspot.com/2020/07/iwsg-june-2020-beginners-guide-to.html @LauraBambrey @DeniseCCovey #debutauthor, #publishing, #ebook,
#DigitalOriginals, #SimonandSchuster
#IWSG


And of course I can't leave without inviting you all to participate in WEP's AUGUST challenge -

JUNE'S WEP was its usual success with fascinating dark tales for the URBAN NIGHTMARE we find ourselves in! Writing during this time has proved cathartic for so many.

August 7th - #IWSG post. - Pen name, building websites, social media...Toni Morrison, Kristen Lamb on Amazon.

Hello all! Time for the August 7 IWSG! Yeah I know. But it's nearly lunchtime 7/8 (or 8/7) in Oz.

Go HERE to visit. more participants.

 Alex's awesome co-hosts for the August 7 posting of the IWSG areRenee Scattergood,Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, and LG Keltner! 
Please visit them if you can! 
  Be sure to visit theInsecure Writer’s Support Group Website!!!

Before I begin, I honor Toni Morrison. the great American literati who recently passed. She will be sadly missed, but her words will never die. I plan to resurrect her yellow-leafed tomes for a good re-read.

If you haven't caught it, I recommend reading Kristen Lamb's latest post on Amazon's road to world domination of the publishing industry. It's not a put down of the ZON. She's researched it well - the NY big publishers and how they dropped the ball, never regarding e-books as real competition, to Amazon's well-thought-out, clinical, long range plan to sell books ... fascinating reading. 

I know there's an opinion that blog posts should be kept short, but in the same way I love LONG books (bring 'em on - I just read every book in the Game of Thrones series. Even skipping the gratuitous violence, them's some serious word numbers). If a long blog post captures my attention, I'll read every word. And Kristen's post are usually attention capturing.

Now down to little ole me. Not nearly as interesting as Amazon's journey which affects pretty much all of us ...

Keyword - PEN NAME

Who amongst us uses a pen name? Long ago, I decided to go with a pen name when I got around to publishing, whether traditional or self-publishing. I asked for opinions in my self-publishing FB group, 20Booksto50K, and the jury was overwhelmingly positive about pen names. These high achievers write multi genres and seem to write each under a different name.

Back in the day, the idea of a pen name was to publish in secret. Today it can be to separate genres or just to look for the right name on a certain type of book. Not really secret anymore.

Now that I'm approaching the day I publish all those books I've been working on for years, I have a truckload of work to do - new website, FB page, Twitter, Instagram ... As if maintaining one of each of these wasn't enough. 

Part of my insecurity is that I no longer have a photo editing program simple enough for me to use, and I'm too impatient to struggle with the steep learning curve of getting my head around a new one, so I spend a lot of time designing headers etc on paper and checking how it looks online, but not a lot of time actually building anything online. I know. I know. I don't have much choice, so I hope when I sit down and actually create these online, it'll all come together. 

Writing books is the fun part! The EASY part. All the rest, including BLURBS and SYNOPSES, are the HARD part. 

How's it going with you?

- Do you have a favorite photo editing program? (I never got over the loss of free PicMonkey.) Gosh, I was an expert! Now they want over $7 US a month, which is a lot more in $AUS.

- Do you do everything yourself - social media etc - blurbs, synopses, editing, covers? I'll definitely be outsourcing covers and some editing, but think I'm doing the remainder myself.

Now, to the fun part. WEP/IWSG will have the sign up for the August prompt, RED WHEELBARROW, on August 21st - open for 3 days. Go HERE for ideas. Consider writing for us. We'd love to have you.