Guest Post: Author KR Mitchell On Self-Publishing Your Own Novel

With his first ebook published, KR. Mitchell tells us about his self-publishing
journey.

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I didn’t think I would ever get a book published, and nine years ago without the rise of ebooks that would have been true. The book I had wanted to write was nontraditional and unique in a literary sense. I was more inspired by the fast-moving action and stylistic quirks of animation, movies and video games than any actual book. The result is a book that's dialogue focused and character driven with an emphasis on humor as well as action.

I'd like to explain to you all the process through which I self-published. Let me start by saying there is a wealth of additional information about self-publishing and if anyone wants to know more about it check out my Facebook page or Twitter feed for more advice.

First, I wrote the book. This was quite honestly the easy part. I was free to be as creative as I wished to be without regard to style or form. You don't have to worry about bad dialogue, cut it out later; no need for intensive research, google it later; and no need for editing—which bring us to point number two.

  I had to edit. I hated editing. I hated it more than I hate math and I loathe math. Punctuation, grammar, style and so on had to be carefully checked line by line. There was a lot of addition and subtraction, which coincidentally are the only things I know how to do with math. Dialogue had to be rewritten and scenes had to be switched. It was a heavy task and it took about a week but I eventually turned in a clean copy. I'd recommend pushing this work off on some editor if you can afford it. I currently eat canned beans for dinner so that should tell you my money situation. Pop-tarts are equivalent to French macaroons at the moment. I'll let you know how the macaroons taste as soon as the royalties start coming in.

The final step was publishing the book via Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords and iBooks. The method to do so couldn’t be simpler as long as you take a deep breath, be composed and follow the instructions like a worker drone in an ant colony. When you’re writing the story be sure to set a half-inch first tab stop, use an auto generated table of contents, use page breaks when needed and use “Heading 1” paragraph style for the chapter titles. After you’ve finished the book convert it into an ePub file. Most programs should have an export or save as function to do this for you, but if you’re not sure if your writing program has this function; you can use this website to convert it for you. I recommend using an epub, because the format is universally accepted by all major ebook publishers. Yes you can set the pricing to whatever you want, but stick between the sweet spot of $2.99 and $9.99. You shouldn’t bother with ¢0.99 because you’re not only devaluing your work but every self-published ebook as well.

I lied, the final step is marketing, which is a subject I’m still learning about myself, so I can’t offer you any advice beside the obvious such as use social media and everything else to get the word of mouth started.

Don't look down on self-publishing. The era of "vanity publishing" is over. This is a time where vanity is the social norm. Vanity is the reason why we know who Mark Zuckerberg is and why we should hate him. Having a digital prescience won't hurt your chances at getting a deal with a traditional publisher. In fact, it could help if you can use any sales reports to prove to the gatekeepers who keep their bony claws on the printing press lever that there is a market for your book.

Some additional advice: have your bank information available. All ebook publishers will want to know where to send your well-deserved money. Keep your check or savings and bank routing numbers available as well your Social Security or Tax ID numbers on hand for tax purposes. Don’t be intimidated by the technology or the paperwork assets of self-publishing just be calm. Oh and one more thing, take the plunge and either hire a professional cover designer or buy a royalty free stock photo and edit it yourself. You don't have to use any fancy, finicky programs like Photoshop just use PowerPoint like I did by following this guy's advice.

I hope to see all of you aspiring writers alongside me on the Kindle store. There's no need to keep buying TV dinners with the ice crusted brownies and rubbery corn nimblest. Go forth and write books.

About Forces of Nature Series

The adventures of a young girl named Alison Moody and her friends, Ren Kiramitsu and Edwin Silversine, as they try to save their country and the world from corruption by secret forces with extremist intents. The Forces of Nature is seamlessly mixed with drama and action that keeps you laughing on the edge of your seat. The character development is fascinating along with the twists and turns associated with them. Find the FON Series on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ZVfuGb

About KR. Mitchell

            KR. Mitchell is currently working on a Bachelors of Arts

 in Journalism at the University of Alabama. KR. Mitchell began with a love of reading and writing from a young age. Not until reaching college did KR start serious work on honing his skills in writing thanks to vigorous journalism courses. It is an adherence to AP Style and brevity that influences his writing style's focus on minimalist descriptions, short sentences and conciseness. It's not the standard, but it works for him. Find him on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/10wHEmK 

My Writing Process Pt. 3 Edits (and the end of this post series.)

I tend to write 95% of my novels by hand. My first edits occur when I type up all of my handwritten work. This group of edits is pretty basic, since I find typing to be so tedious.

The second batch of edits occurs one chapter at a time. I will print a single chapter and edit it as thoroughly as possible. At this time, I usually find places that need more description, more back story, better character development etc. and I will write out more (by hand) to add to the story. Later, I will type up my edits and my new additions into my word document.

As a third (and hopefully final) edit, I will look at the novel as a whole, to ensure fluidity and lack of plot holes. At this point, I'll have a clear vision of whether or not the story is complete or needs work, it is in this stage that I also like to share my story with chosen readers who give me helpful feedback - although they tend to steal the work from me to read at the first or second stage of edits and then I get the wonderful chance of being humiliated at my underdeveloped stories/characters/writing/self.

Usually at the third stage of edits, I feel like the novel is a strong as it will get and as long as it will get (damn you low word counts!), but sometimes I have to go back to stage two edits again to fill holes and make the story complete. Overall, edits tend to take up the most of my time as a writer because they are grueling but oh so necessary.

My Writing Process Pt. 2 Writing Time

It's another long one, so please pull up a chair...

After ever major plot point and character is to some extent figured out in my mind and roughly outlined on paper, I finally sit down and begin writing the story.

I tend to find that the hardest thing to do as a writer is write. I don’t believe this means I shouldn’t be a writer, I think it just means I’m human – not a time traveling robot with super cool disco moves as previously believed. Story ideas are pretty easy to come by, but finding the time/ drive to chain myself to a notebook for more than 20 minutes can be hard to come by.

Last year, I took three or so months off from writing my last novel. This was partially due to my inability to just sit down and to the work and primarily due to the fact that I didn’t like where my story was going, and I didn’t know how to fix it. Ultimately, I momentarily gave up. When I finally decided that I wanted to finish the book, I was able to find the time and the drive to do the work.

Recently, I realized that my last book, which was barely up to novel length, took me three years to write. Now I was going to school full time and working 20 hours a week, so hopefully future books don’t take as long, but I freaked out at the prospect of only writing three books over the span of ten years. I decided things had to change.

Authors always tell you to write everyday. I didn’t agree with this for years but now I concede and agree that it is a good plan for any writer to adopt. In my attempt to write daily I did two things. 1). I gave myself a daily goal (only two handwritten pages which I proudly surpass on most days) AND 2). I gave myself a monthly goal (25 writing days a month). In this month, with its 31 days, I have 6 freebie days – days when I don’t have to write. I like to keep track of my writing days on my calendar. I put a star on each day that I do write and keep tally marks on the top of the calendar. This way I can see my progress through the month.

So far, I am happy with my plan and each day I write I feel good about my progress. Keeping a writing plan helps me ensure that my novel is being written and I don’t anticipate/worry that this new book will take me three years to complete.

Understanding Your Strengths and Weaknesses

While preparing what I wanted to say at my most recent workshop meeting, I came across the concept of what my strengths and weaknesses are. This is something that haunts writers when their weaknesses are very evident in their writing or their strengths make a piece really work.

Weaknesses are something that creep out from all the dark places of your psyche when editing. The wish to be perfect is most severe in these moments. Overall, I don't mind my weaknesses because I understand them, they don't hide as faceless bogeymen around the corner waiting to undercut my newest story. By knowing your weaknesses, you can empower your work because it gives you something to improve upon and it won't surprise you when critiquers mention them.

My biggest weakness when writing is my description. I've done a lot to improve my description, and in the world of fantasy, description should be a writer's strong point, but my ability to show a scene will always be lacking. I accept that, and do my best to do what I can to portray the events and characters in my story as vividly as I am able.

My biggest strength (and this is something you need to discover, so that when you are thinking about your weaknesses you can at least smile about what you do well), I think, is my dialogue. I feel like I have knack for funny conversations, and for meaningful/thought provoking statements.

Ultimately, by discovering your weaknesses you can find a place to improve your work and by locating your strengths you can find the elements of your writing which keep you going even when your writing is lacking; those elements that remind you that you have something to offer, that there is something you do well and there is a reason to carry on writing, no matter how poorly something looks or how brutally something is critiqued.