Ronald Reagan’s Daughter Self Publishes
Getting published by a traditional publishing house these days is tough. Ask any writer about their publishing experience and you’ll hear a variety stories with poor results. The process can induce nerves and anxiety, even for those who have a thick skin. But when you think about celebrities and the famous people of the world, it’s hard to imagine them on the receiving end of a rejection letter from a publishing house. After all, they’re popular. Don’t people want to read about them? That’s what we thought. But yesterday we learned about Patti Davis, Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s daughter, who struggled to find approval with her latest book. Although she sings her literary agents praises in interviews, she says she was unable to get a book deal for her latest book Til Human Voices Wake Us. This fictional piece focuses on a mother who falls in love with her sister-in-law while mourning the loss of her husband.
But this wasn’t Patti Davis’ first literary rodeo. She penned her first book Home Front back in 1986. Unfortunately, it was not well received. This was rumored to have been caused by her families’ political involvement. Since then she has written 8 more books. Her struggle with publishing Til Human Voices Wake Us was the motivating factor behind self publishing. “With each of my traditionally published books”, says Patti, “I felt like I was dropping off my child in a strange city, in the senseless murder district, with, ‘Hope you make it’”. Sadly, many authors are familiar with this feeling.
BookRix was created to give writers a platform to publish and distribute their work while having a sense of control. Self publishing also eliminates the waiting game many encounter with traditional publishing houses. Getting your book out there shouldn’t be that hard. And when people, even famous people, are taking control of their book, it’s really encouraging.
“There is now a boundary line in my career separating being conventionally published and self published”, Patti says. “And I’m very much at peace on this side of that boundary line.”
Good for you, Patti. Your determination is commendable!
Blurb:
Willie North is a successful, hardworking pig farmer, known all around Muddy Fork as a kind man and a good neighbor. However, due to his weight and looks, Willie couldn’t attract a woman, no matter how hard he tried. He was the only single man in Muddy Fork, so in an act of desperation, he pays $1000 for a mail order bride. When word spreads, the whole of Muddy Fork is at the train station to greet her. Will she turn out just as he imagined, or will he end up with a broken heart? A Muddy Fork Short Story.
How to add your self-published eBook to Goodreads AND enable Kobo book reviews
For those of you who don’t already know, Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Their mission is to help people find and share books they love. Basically, they are making reading more social and it’s working! If you’re an author who sells your books through Kobo, you’ll know just how important Goodreads is. At the moment, only people with Goodreads accounts can leave a book review at Kobo. You have to sign-in to your Goodreads account, search for the book, add it to one of your bookshelves (read, to read, currently reading), give it a star rating and then, if you want, leave a personal review about the book. This review will then automatically show up on the book’s Kobo page.
For indie authors, reviews can make or break the success of a book. Most readers find new books through word of mouth or recommendations from a friend. The great thing about Goodreads is that your friends can share their reviews and recommendations with you, or you can visit their profile to see what books they’re reading or read (and enjoyed) in the past. BookRix is similar, we add books to our favorites and add our reviews to the book info pages – then our friends can see what we think about other books on the site. Leaving a book review on BookRix is easy because all the free eBooks are already available on the site, and the self-published eBooks have accessible shop links. However, more often than not, indie books won’t be found in the Goodreads search. If a reader can’t find your book to leave a review, then other Kobo readers won’t know if anyone likes or dislikes your book. Without a review to read, they might not buy your book.
The simple thing to do is add your book to the Goodreads library. To add your book manually, here is what you do. You can visit the Goodreads Home Page, then click on the Find and add books to your shelves button which will take you to the search page. Then simply click on the Manually Add a Book button on the top right. Next, you just need to input your book info.
Here’s what you need:
1. Title and author name (*If your book is part of a series, you should add “Part One” or “Part Two” to the end of the title to alert the reader.)
2. ISBN (If you don’t know this, you can find it on the Imprint page of your BookRix book, you can also usually find it on Amazon – if not, contact our support and we’ll help you.)
3. Publisher (BookRix GmbH & Co. KG)
4. Date published (Again, if you’re not sure of the exact date, you can find it on Amazon, or on the imprint page of your BookRix book.)
5. Number of pages (If your book is a short story, just leave this part blank.)
6. Format (In this case, you would always select eBook.)
7. Edition (You only enter information here if you have published more than one edition.)
8. Description or Blurb (Just copy and paste it!)
9. Edition Language
10. Cover image (This is so important – it’s on the top right hand side and allows you to upload a jpeg from your computer. Don’t skip this step or your book won’t have a cover and we all know how important that is for potential readers.)
There is one more thing that you should know about Goodreads – it was just bought by Amazon. That’s one more major reason why your eBook should be in their library. Just because you’re an indie author, doesn’t mean you should be left behind!
*Don’t forget to sign up for the Goodreads Author Program – then you’ll be able to create a personalized profile page and promote your books.
Free Writing Contest: Enter Your eBook to Win a Marketing Package
The BookRix Young Adult Contest: Be The Best (Seller) You Can Be
Writing is your talent, your skill, and your greatness! Unfortunately, being an Indie Author comes with a downside: The grueling task of self-marketing. It’s a big, book-filled world out there, and without marketing, readers won’t know about you or your work. It’s kinda hard to be a Best Seller when nobody knows about your book, so let’s get you noticed!
Entering this contest could ease some of the pressures of marketing because BookRix will help you get your eBook out there to the world. Yes, we’re cool like that!
PRIZES:
The top 2 winners in this “Be The Best (Seller)” contest will each receive a MARKETING PACKAGE for special book promotions, when their winning eBook is distributed via the BookRix Self-Publishing Service. This Marketing Package includes being featured on the BookRix website /blog/Twitter & Facebook fan pages/newsletter, external book reviews, possible blog tours and exposure on external sites with a possible feature in an eBook shop. A custom cover and editing service could also be thrown into the mix because, like we said, we are cool like that!
GUIDELINES:
* You can only submit ONE entry so make sure that it’s your best work
*Anyone can enter however your story should be written for YOUNG ADULTS (YA) which is typically 13-17.
* Your entry CANNOT BE A BOOK FOR SALE
*Your entry MUST HAVE A COVER
* Your entry should be a novelette, 7,000 – 17,000 words and be a complete story (beginning, middle and end)
OR
*Your entry should be PART ONE OF A SERIES with a minimum of 4,000 words
OR
*If you are an over achiever (which we love!), feel free to enter a novel length book.
CONTEST DATES:
Submit your story in the thread, between April 3, 2013 through June 27, 2013 11a.m. EST, 4 p.m. London Time/GMT in the BookRix Free Writing Contests Entry Thread.
VOTING:
* One winner will be chosen by the BookRix Team and another winner will be chosen by the BookRix writing community, in a separate voting thread, from June 28 through July 8, 2013 11a.m. EST.
* Only quality books will be chosen so make sure that your entry is 100% proofread for spelling, grammar, syntax, etc.
HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST:
Submit a link to your eBook in the contest entry thread, on or after April 3, 2013, in the group Writing Contests on BookRix.com.
BookRix is always looking for great books to have published and we are there to help you get the exposure you need to market your eBook to become a more successful author. This contest is designed to inspire great writing to give you the push that you need to get your best out there and for us to help you get it further.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Why eBook authors can’t convert PDFs to ePubs
Creating beautiful eBooks is EASY!
It seems like the easiest way to create an eBook exactly how you want it to look would be to create a stunning PDF, right? WRONG! At this point, in the world of eBook technology, it is impossible to convert a PDF directly into an ePub. A PDF is a print format, so PDF documents are basically less-structured versions of their word-processor originals. While PDF content is made to look really good, it actually includes very little structure. And by that I mean that it doesn’t contain enough clues about the function of text elements (like bold, italics, spacing, line breaks, indentation, paragraph alignment, etc.,) or how they should be displayed in a different context (I.E. YOUR EBOOK). This means that converting a PDF document to ePub first requires conversion to a more structured text format, like Microsoft Word… So now you’re back to the basics.
As an author, you have to remember that an eBook just isn’t a print book. Look at the books on your eReading devices and you’ll start to get a better understanding. Each eReader is different. On my Kobo, I can even change the font type, which would totally disregard whatever the author initially chose. Honestly, I love this option. Years ago (before my love affair with eReaders) I tried reading a paperback copy of Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie three times and could never seem to get into it. Then, while visiting a friend, I picked up her copy and started reading it without any trouble. Upon closer inspection of my own copy, I realized that the font was just too difficult to wrap my eyes around. It was old fashioned and looked slightly smudged on the somewhat yellowed page. My friend’s copy was crisp and clean and so easy to read. As much as I miss the smell of an old book, being able to read The Brothers Karamazov on my eReader, in a lovely modern font type, is a dream come true. The most important thing about reading is actually being able to read. It’s not the smell of the book, the feel of the pages, or even adding another title to your ever-growing bookshelf; it’s about the story, it’s about imagination, and it’s about losing yourself over and over again to the power of a good book.
I’m off track. The point of all of this is that the formatting from a PDF can’t be extracted because it just doesn’t work as an ePub. If you want nice clean formatting in your eBook, all you need is Microsoft Word (for you Mac users out there, you can save your Pages doc as a Word doc). Using the BookRix Self-Publishing service couldn’t be easier with Word, just write your story and make sure each chapter title is formatted as a “Heading” (you can find the Heading option in the same tool bar as bold, italics and alignment – just look to the right, you can’t miss it) and then, when you create an eBook our editor will automatically set all those Headings as chapters. This way, when you download an eBook you’ve got a fully interactive table of contents. Easy-peasy, right? RIGHT!
Self-publishing is about freedom and ease, so take advantage of it and spend more time writing!
Why You Should Buy Indie Books
The success of a previously unknown indie author inspires us. As writers, we love to hear a good rags to riches tale, especially when it relates to self-published indie authors. We want to believe that if our book is good enough, and if we try hard enough, we’ll sell our book and maybe, just maybe, be able to make a career out of writing. Imagining that day when we can finally fill out the form as “CAREER: Author” helps us get through anything, even rejection and writer’s block.
So there is one thing that I can’t understand: Why don’t indie authors support one another. If you’re a writer, why don’t you buy books from your peers? Sure, buying a New York Times Best Seller is showing that author that you care, but in all honesty, they aren’t noticing one more sale. If you buy a book by a self-published indie author, they are going to jump up and down and celebrate that sale. You could even join their blog and send them a message and you’ll hear back. They have no other reason to respond to your comment, other than the simple fact that they are grateful.
I’m not using the H word here… (ahem, hypocrisy), but in all honesty, if we’re not buying indie books, and more specifically self-published books, then why should we expect anyone to buy our books when we publish them? Find that diamond in the rough and be the first to discover the new and great authors that are out there, right now, waiting for you to buy their books.
SHOW A LITTLE INDIE LOVE!
BookRix Blog Tour – Stop by for great GIVEAWAYS!
BookRix is hosting its first book blog tour, thanks to the help of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and BookRix author, Jess Wygle. If you don’t already know about book blog tours, I’m here to get you in the know. Basically, it’s just like a real book tour, but instead of sending the author and the book to a series of cities in the span of a month, we are sending Jess Wygle and her book, Evol, to 20+ book blogs between today, February 22nd and March 24th. Each stop on the tour will feature one or more of the following:
1. A book review – to get readers interested in the book, and to give everyone a better understanding of what happens in the story.
2. An author interview – to learn more about Jess and her writing.
3. A guest post - with something fun written by Jess on an assortment of topics.
4. A PROMO – to, well, promote.
There will also be giveaways (at almost every single stop!) offering prizes like $10-$25 Amazon gift cards, free eBooks, t-shirts and the final big giveaway from the BookRix blog will be a $100 Amazon gift card and an assortment of eBooks. Basically, you’re going to want to follow Jess around on her tour and you’re going to want to buy her book.
This is the best way to show your support for indie authors (like yourselves) who are trying to promote their self-published books (like yours) and live the dream (which is the same as yours)… I think you know where I’m going with this. Tell your friends and help us make our first blog tour a successful one. Who knows, you might be the next one chosen to go on tour?
Visit the tour schedule by clicking HERE. The BookRix stop is on Monday, February 25th. You’ll also find that some of your fellow community members are hosting at their blogs.
Books by Jess Wygle:
