Writers: Register Your United States Copyright

Companies can charge up to $150 to register your copyright on your behalf but you can do it yourself for only $35 and it'll only take half an hour. That's a savings of $115. Now multiply that by all the books you're going to need to register one day.

Why register your copyright? While it's true your work is copyrighted from the time it is created, unless you register your copyright you can't bring a lawsuit against theives for infringement. A related point is that if your book is uploaded to a website and offered for free without your permission the site will often remove it if you send them proof of copyright. In my opinion it's $35 well spent.

For an excellent guide through the entire process go here: A Step-By-Step Guide to U.S. Copyright Registration for Self-Publishers.

Thanks to PG over at The Passive Voice blog for posting a link to this how-to article.

The Breeders: A Self Publishing Success Story

Matthew J. Beier, author of The Breeders, writes: 

In deciding to take the big leap, I knew two things for certain: I was putting future chances of being traditionally published on the line, and I would not be able to undo any career-related damage it might cause.

. . . .

Before 2011, I was a fledgling writer in chains. My success as a novelist depended on whichever benevolent literary agent buried in New York’s bowels might find my work amazing and sellable. By the time I started sending queries for my “gay agenda” satire The Breeders (and actually having success getting manuscript requests), I was well broken in to the traditional publishing system, complete with thick skin and a healthy dose of self-doubt.

Read the rest of Matthew's article here: Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.

Matthew's story reminded me that when success comes it's often through prolonged, exhausting, effort. His is a great story and an inspiration although in an I-hope-it's-not-that-hard-for-me sort of way.

Thanks to Passive Guy for mentioning Matthew on the Passive Voice Blog.


Other articles:
- Twylah: Turn Your Tweets Into A Blog
- Fifty Shades of Grey - Oh My!
- Pixar: 22 Ways To Tell A Great Story

Writing Prompt: Desperate Phone Call

I thought I'd try something different and post a writing prompt.

It's the middle of the night and your phone rings. Grumpy, you answer it. The voice on the line is breathy as though whoever it is has been running. "You're in danger. Take it and leave town. Now."

You hear the gurgle of a semi-automatic machine gun and a muffled scream. It sounds as though the phone has clattered to the ground.  

Sleep forgotten you sit up in bed. "Hello? Hello!" No response.

After a moment you hear slow, deep, breathing. "We know who you are" This voice is menacing and gravelly. "We only want the package. Go to the police and you're dead."

What do you say? What do you do?

Good writing!

"Writing Prompt: Desperate Phone Call" copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

How To Write In The Shower

I get my best ideas when I'm in the shower. Or at least it seems that way. Perhaps it's like the dream where you understand the answer to everything but forget it when you wake. I suspect if I remembered it would be something like 'hamsters'. Or '42'.

But I really do get my best ideas in the shower. For a while I kept a pad of paper by the bathroom sink and I'd dart out, try to dry my hands, and scribble down my epiphany.

It wasn't pretty.

I mentioned my dilemma to one of my writer friends, C.G. Cameron, and she had a great solution: keep a special water-friendly writing pad in the shower. I always wondered why she had the best ideas! Here's her solution:

At Staples I picked up a cheap plastic clipboard and a Help Wanted sign. ("Closed" signs don't encourage creativity.) Total cost, about $8. Turn the sign over (the back is plain white and exactly enough texture to grab the graphite of the pencil). You could do without the clipboard if you have a handy wall in your shower. Grab a pencil with a pocket clip on it, run a rubber band through the clip and through the hole at the top of the clipboard (chain multiple rubber bands to make it longer), or just grab any pencil to set at the side of the tub or on the soap dish. The graphite will write on the rough back of the sign, and you can clean it off using a Magic Sponge or a bit of scrub/cleanser (something slightly abrasive). Just remember to take the clipboard into the bathroom with you, with your towel and rubber ducky, and you're set.

Now you'll never again lose those ideas.

(Or you could go to a store that carries SCUBA gear and buy one of their writing tablets for underwater, and then just leave it in the shower, but Staples was much closer.)

C.G. gave me her permission to post these instructions (thank you!). She has a great Twitter feed: @jazz2midnight.

I'm curious, has anyone tried something like this? In any case, good luck constructing your water-proof writing tablet!


Other reading:
- Pixar: 22 Ways To Tell A Great Story
- Publishing With Amazon: The Hidden Cost Of Delivery
- Conflict Creation: The Needs Of Your Characters

Twylah: Turn Your Tweets Into A Blog

I was surfing the electronic currents of the web when I chanced upon Elisabeth Spann Craig's Twylah page. It looks incredible! I signed up too and today received my own Twylah Page. I'm thrilled to bits.

For some time now I've been looking for a program that could do two things: first, show which of my tweets were the most popular and, second, display them in a blog-like interface.

Tweets and popularity
I've often wanted a quick way of determining which of my tweets were the most popular--I guess this is known as 'trending'. After all, I don't want to bore anyone! It's true, there are a number of programs that will tell you how many times a certain tweet has been retweeted (for instance Topsy Labs Social Analytics and Tweetreach) but, in my opinion, they lack clarity. That said, I love Topsy Analytics and use it all the time to find who is re-tweeting my tweets as well as interesting people to follow.

Blog-like interface for tweets
I'm not complaining about Twitter's interface. I like it that I can go to my twitter account and see a timeline of my tweets. I can't tell you how many times my cat has jumped onto my keyboard while I'm composing a Tweet and I need to find out whether it was cancelled or published prematurely.

That said, it would be handy to have an attractive visual interface which allowed a user to take in my most re-tweeted tweets at a glance.

I've only just received my Twylah page so all I can give you are my first impressions. I'll write again about my experience with the service after I've used it for a while.

If you'd like to try out Twylah, here's the link: Twylah. The service is still in beta so you have to request an invite, but I got mine after two or three days.

Other articles:
- Aherk! Makes Writing App 'Write Or Die' Look Tame
- Changes in Amazon's Algorithm: An Update
- Mark Coker, Founder Of Smashwords, Talks About Indie Publishing

His Wish Granted: WIlliam Faulkner's, "The Sound And The Fury", Color Coded

I read William Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury as part of an English course taught by one of the most fabulous people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting: Sue Anne Johnson. I took the course in my second semester of college and it turned into one of the best experiences of my life.

I'd heard Faulkner's book was difficult, I'd heard it was written as a flow-of-consciousness narrative, but I was still unprepared. As I read the words on the first page I couldn't make them form a narrative. For me it was, as Shakespeare wrote, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

The next day Ms. Johnson asked us to raise our hand if we finished our reading assignment. One person had.

It got much easier after that first introduction and largely because Sue Anne explained a few things about the viewpoint Faulkner was using in the first part of his book. I won't go into that, but an excellent summary can be found in the Wikipedia entry on The Sound And The Fury. I remember Sue Anne telling us that Falkner wanted shifts in time indicated by a change of ink color but that the cost was prohibitive.

It thrilled me to read that now, for the first time, Faulkner's book has been printed as he first envisioned it. The following is from the Los Angeles Times:

In a special edition, the Folio Society is publishing "The Sound and the Fury" in 14 colors. It's a fine press edition, quarter-bound in leather, with a slipcase and an additional volume of commentary. It also includes a color-coded bookmark that reveals which time period is designated by each color.

The Folio Society worked with two Faulkner scholars, Stephen Ross and Noel Polk, to figure out how to divide the text. Only the Benjy section is rendered in the 14 colors of ink.

"With the Benjy section the different threads are sufficiently clear that I don't feel we are distorting or compromising the novel," Folio's commissioning editor for limited editions Neil Titman told the Guardian. "I found the book tremendously confusing the first time I read it, so I think that overall you have a net gain here, rather than feeling over-guided."

The color edition of Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" is being published July 6 in a limited edition of 1,480 and is priced at $345. One thousand preordered copies have been sold.

To read the entire article, click here:  'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color.

If the colored copy of The Sound And The Fury retails at $345 today I cringe to think what it would have cost a publisher to produce back in 1929!

I would love to own one of these versions. Perhaps one day it will be released as an ebook.

Cheers.

Other reading:
- WorldCat: Find Books In A Library Near You
- How Important Is It To Promote Your Books?
- Query Tracker: Keep Track Of Your Stories

Penelope Trunk Discusses Time Management

A few months ago a friend sent me the link to Penelope Trunk's blog and I've been reading it ever since. This is easy to do since Penelope only posts every few days. Her articles are long and rambling, but in the best of ways. They are the kind of posts/stories you don't read so much as fall into. She has the knack of making you feel as though she's speaking right to you and, though I don't agree with everything she says--wouldn't that be boring?--I at least find it interesting.

This morning I realized I hadn't checked her blog in a couple if weeks and was pleasantly surprised to find a few new articles. I love it when she writes something relevant to writers, or that is relevant to me, and since I'm a writer, I hope it'll interest others.

One of the Penelope's new articles was on time management (Time management tips that'll work for your life). It's excellent. I think I like it so much because it's filled with what I think of as common sense. For example, she writes:

Tim Ferriss, (who I have complained about in the past) also, provides the fastest, easiest way to lose weight. He’s a time management guru and he’s extended that to weight loss. You don’t have to spend time at the gym. Instead, you can do stuff like eat in extremely restricted ways and binge one day a week. But how do you do this with a family? What do you tell your kids when you’re eating like a crazy person?
- Time management tips that’ll work for your life

The text I just quoted was written about her first point which was: Experiment in ways that won't risk the sanity of the people around you. Too few people say things like that.

As I read this I thought of some of the nutty things writers do. Sure there's the quasi-normal things like staying up all night to meet a deadline and sitting in front of a computer monitor typing away non-stop on a little keyboard for hours each and every day--I mean, students do this all the time. But we do other things, things like trying to write a novel in a month--whether for NANOWRIMO or not (and I don't meant to bash Nano! I think it's terrific.) But many of the things we do routinely could be said to risk the sanity of those around us.

The rest of Penelope's article is good too, and I'd encourage you to read it for her time management advice, although she does say more about what not to do than how to make it all work, but I'm not sure anyone can do that. I did especially enjoy her post about what it's like to have a film crew come and stay for a few days and film a reality TV show (it's called How to choose a new career).

Well, I'm off to get some grist for my writing mill by visiting a local Farmer's Market. Isn't research great?

I hope the weather is gorgeous where you are and that you can get out to enjoy it. Cheers!

Related articles:
- The secret to making a living as a writer: work for free
- Pixar: 22 Ways To Tell A Great Story
- Henry Miller's 11 Writing Commandments
- Penelope Trunk's Blog

WorldCat: Find Books In A Library Near You

This is a fantastic idea! Ever wondered if a certain book was in a library near you? I know I have. Here's a page that takes the pain out of your search, and it doesn't just work for books, you can use it to locate things such as CDs, DVDs and Articles. (If you'd like to try it out for yourself, go here: WorldCat: The World's Largest Library Catalog.)

To try it out I entered the city I live in and typed in the title of one of my favorite books, Lord Of The Flies, by William Golding. After hitting the enter key I was given a list of links to various editions and formats. I clicked the first link and was presented with a list of libraries in my area that have the book, what format the book is in, the distance to the library, and a list of links to information and services the library provides.

As if that weren't enough I was also presented with links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Better World Books in case I wanted to purchase the book.

Reviews
At the very bottom of the page I was presented with a smattering of reviews Lord Of The Flies has received and which rate it on a scale of 1 to 5. Which brings up the issue of how useful reviews are.
One reviewer on Goodreads.com gave Lord Of The Flies one star out of five and, which may be worse, 102 people agreed with that rating! Let me quote from this review:

See, I would have cared a bit more about the little island society of prepubescent boys and their descent into barbarism if you know, any of the characters had been developed AT ALL

As I say, the mileage you get from the reviews will vary. By the way, I can't give you a direct link to the review I quoted, but you can read it here, it's the last one on the page.

WorldCat: The Site For Mobile devises
WorldCat also has a site for mobile devises (WorldCat: Mobile Web Beta) so I thought I'd try it out on my iPad. This is terrific! It works just the same as the standard website but it seems more streamlined and user friendly.

WorldCat on Facebook
WorldCat also has a Facebook app, to learn more about that go here, WorldCat search plug-ins, or head straight over to Facebook's WorldCat application page.

Cheers!

David Gaughran Shares His Sale Figures: Print Pays

Last year David Gaughran used to list how much he was making from the sales of his books, what he was doing in terms of promotion, where he was selling his books, and so on, but he hasn't done it in awhile and I missed it.

Perhaps it's voyeuristic, but when David had a great month I felt inspired and when he had a slow month it made me feel better about the slow months I've had, so for me it was a win-win.

In any case, I was very happy to see David is once again reporting his numbers. In his latest post he concentrates on paperback sales of his book, Let's Get Digital (love that title!). He writes:

I was really slow to see the potential in print, and it was probably the biggest mistake I made over the last year. ...

I had felt that the market for Let’s Get Digital would be largely, um, digital, and that whatever was left would be cannibalized by the PDF version being available as a free download from my blog.
I was wrong.

Paperback Growth

Here are my paperback sales for the last five months:

February: 6
March: 24
April: 20
May: 49
June: 67

Note: A Storm Hits Valparaiso was released in Feb, Let’s Get Digital in May

I’m pretty happy with that growth – especially because I’m averaging $5 in royalties per copy sold. Last month, paperbacks brought in $330 (profit) – which is about 25% of my current income, helping me break new ground. I cleared $1000 in May and easily topped that in June – largely on the back of stronger print numbers.

Most of those paperback sales came from Amazon US, and, following that, direct sales to indie bookstores (mostly in the UK).
- Making Money From Paperbacks

Let's think about that. In one month David's paperback sales from just one of his books earned him 25% of his current monthly income from writing. That's what I call significant!

CreateSpace
This is the second time in the last few days I've come across an author singing the praises of Amazon's CreateSpace. (What Jen Talty of Cool Gus Publishing thinks of Amazon's CreateSpace.)

David makes another excellent point and one I hadn't considered. Let's say you're selling your ebook for $2.99 on Amazon and are offering a print version through CreateSpace for $13.99. When a reader views the ebook version they'll see the $13.99 price crossed out, the Kindle Price of $2.99 highlighted, and the customer will be informed that, in buying your ebook, they will save $11.

Now that's good advertising!

I've just concentrated on a couple of the things David talks about in his article; it's well worth the read: Making Money From Paperbacks

Related reading:
- Jen Talty: Amazon's CreateSpace Vs LIghtning Source
- Kobo's Self-Publishing Portal: Report From A Beta Tester
- Mystery Writer Elizabeth S. Craig's Reasons For Self Publishing

Photo credit: The Guardian

Kristen Lamb: Don't Let Trolls Make You Crazy

Don't Feed The Troll

I love Kristen Lamb's blog, but this time she's outdone herself! Anyone who has ever dared to do something that took them out of their comfort zone has had the unpleasant experience of being trolled. Kristen gives some excellent advice on how to respond to trolls: don't. She writes:

It is easy to have a bad day and snap on-line, but here’s the thing. That is a luxury only afforded to amateurs. If we are serious about being successful writers then we know that publishing/the blogosphere are small worlds. People who blog and take time to serve other writers are generally viewed in high regard, because let’s be honest. They don’t have to help other writers.

Read the rest of Kristen's blog post here: Trolling the Trollosphere–Staying Sane in a World of Crazy.

Sometimes, often, tolls make their presence known in comments--I have been extraordinarily fortunate in this regard, and (*knock on wood*) haven't yet had the displeasure of meeting one--but in my experience trolls also rear their heads in real life.

It is no secret that the world of publishing is rapidly changing and many folks who haven't been paying close attention don't realize there's a difference between self publishing a book and being taken to the cleaners by a vanity press.

When strangers think you're nuts for self-publishing that's one thing, but when friends take a condescending tone and try to show you the error of your ways it's quite another. But that could just be me! When someone tries to 'set me straight' about 'how it is' in publishing it puts my teeth on edge.

Now, I'm not saying I know it all, far from it! But I do know that for many authors self publishing was the right path for them, both temperamentally and financially. They are far happier on their own than they would be with a traditional publisher and they are making a decent wage through their writing.

If you are cornered by a friend in troll aspect, don't let his remarks get you down. I usually make the mistake of trying to educate my interlocutor about the current state of the publishing industry but this is useless since he doesn't think I've got the good sense God gave a slug and so won't believe anything I say. My advice: Kristen Lamb is (of course!) right. Don't waste your breath. Don't engage, just smile and change the topic.

Is that cynical? I hope not!

Have you ever had a run-in with a troll?