By the Power of Bitstrips

I thought it would be nice to break up the monotony of the Kickstarter campaign and instead share something I've been working on to promote the book. If you're on Facebook or have a smart phone you may have seen the Bitstrip app. This is a program that allows you to create a character for yourself and your friends and to put them into one frame comics. I decided it would be cool to do a couple of these with Whit and his roommate/bestie Brooks from the Full of Whit series. Enjoy!

The deep bond and hilarious misadventures of Whit and Brooks continues in book one of our series "The Beginning of Whit" on Kickstarter now! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2121709675/the-beginning-of-whit-a-laugh-out-loud-urban-fanta

How To Kickstarter Pt. 2

Okay, so part one was all about the video. Which is important. But another important feature of your Kickstarter, is your prizes. You want something related to your project, something you produce, and something interesting that will entice people to lay down money on the project because of what they will receive.

It took us a while to determine what our final prizes would be. We started out with a wide range of ideas some that seemed too simple (not valuable enough) and some that felt too difficult for us to make in a timely fashion or even too cost prohibitive. You want to give out some awesome stuff but you also want to raise money for publishing your book, not just raise money to make rewards and walk away from the process with just five dollars in your pocket.

What we settled on were obviously copies of the book, but then also series themed gift ideas. I had noticed on other Kickstarter campaigns that people were labeling the different levels, perhaps in an attempt to make them sound more interesting (which works) and so we decided to do the same. We created your basic prizes and then higher level “tracks.”

We did a demon hunting track with Demon Hunting Society gear associated with the prize levels.

We also did a Big City tourist track with prizes centered around Big City businesses.

We also took a look at what we could achieve in a limited amount of time and what the final cost would be for supplies. Our final decisions were as such:

As you can see we tried to have complementary prizes at each level of the different tracks but this also allowed people a little bit of a customization to their rewards.

What about the ideas we had to scrap? Well, those might end up being useful for future giveaways either during the campaign or once the book is out in print. I’ll talk more about that in a future post. 

To see all our prizes check out our Kickstarter at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2121709675/the-beginning-of-whit-a-laugh-out-loud-urban-fanta

How to Kickstarter. Pt. 1

I have just launched my own Kickstarter for the first book in the Full of Whit series - "The Beginning of Whit"!!!!

Woohoo! 

*Applause* 

Boo-hiss!

What? No booing!

Anyways. I decided to share some of my experiences with you here since Kickstarter is a very viable option for indie authors to get support (both monetarily and otherwise) for their projects.

I also decided to drop this into a multi-part blog series because it's a lot of content and I don't want to overwhelm or bore any of you. So bear with me. ;)

My Kickstarter Timeline:

August - filmed the original video for Kickstarter

Early September - finish editing video, polishing up text, creating content for page.

Late September - typing all of the information into Kickstarter, tweaking video, adjusting content

Early October - jumping through amazon.com business account hoops, final touches on Kickstarter page, waiting for Kicktarter to approve the project

October 8th - Kickstarter launched!

November 7th - Kickstarter will end.

Okay, so if you pursue a Kickstarter for your project it might not take you months to get from idea to launch but it might take you that long or longer. Kickstarter is a lot of work and even though we are only in day two of the campaign, and I can't say if it's worth it, I can say what it was like putting it all together. 

The first bit (other than several conversations and some serious planning) was making the video. It took us about 3 hours to shoot all the footage we wanted, and we only utilized about 5 minutes of it. The other usable footage has helped in other ways, like a promo/introduction video I made for my co-author and I for our FB page and Youtube page. Compiling the video, (because we shot a lot of our stuff in small segments and we didn't have a set script so many takes had to be scrapped), took over 20 hours to complete. 

The point of the video is to introduce yourselves, your product (the book), why you need backer's support (printing, editing, cover art, etc.) and what they will get out of it (shiny new books! and other goodies.). It's also important to make your product sound interesting - why are you passionate about it, why do you think it's worth a backer's time and money.

The video should be as professional as you can make it which means cutting down on background noise, considering the location of the shoot and utilizing the best equipment you can afford. I actually saw a Kickstarter video that was filmed in a mall with people walking by, the noise of the mall and the noise of the music playing in the mall on top of the authors talking about their project. I'm not sure if their project was successful but their video was pretty awful. 

I tried to create the simplest background I could - just a solid color wall with no pictures or other distractions. I also tried to limit the amount of ambient noise, but that was difficult in a busy household. We also filmed inside to limit any of the unpredictable noises that you could get outside or in a public location. 

When I compiled the final video, I utilized photos (some of our own and some free ones from www.morguefile.com) to introduce different segments of the film and I utilized free music from the free music archive http://freemusicarchive.org/ (windows movie maker actually suggests this site as a viable option for movie music). I also utilized windows movie maker to make my film, and it was good enough, but I know it's not the best software out there.

Lastly, I showed the original film to several people and altered it with their feedback, then showed them an edited, and changed that as well. I think I finally went with the fifth or sixth version which was a suitable time (5 minutes or less - to keep the interest of the viewer) and held enough content to promote the project. 

Long story short, here's my Kickstarter video for you to enjoy:

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

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 

Rejection

Just got my first rejection from a serious publisher. Now just to be clear, this is not the first time my work has been rejected so maybe that's why it's not really fazing me. I know it's something all writers face and probably everything that can be said on the matter has been said but I figured I'd share my experience anyways. I sent a query letter to Ace last April. In November, I received a response requesting the full manuscript. A week ago I received the formal rejection. It's hard not to look at it like a year down the drain, but I'm still resilient. My co-author and I are going back to the drawing board and accessing which publisher we want to send it to next. It's hard not to get a little frustrated when you think about if it will take a year with each publisher and if it will take 10 publishers or more before someone wants it. I mean, if it takes 10 years to publish that would be insane. I'll still write because it's impossible for me not to but I might give up on trying to get published after 10 years of rejections.

Anyways, I've also been researching the social media practices of authors I admire and I went to the website of Moira J. Moore, author of the Lee and Taro series, and found something interesting (and related). While Ace had been publishing her series (or at least the first 5 out of 6 books), the decided not to publish the 6th/final book. I think it would almost be worst to be picked up by a publisher only to have them drop my series halfway through completion. Hearing about her situation gave me some perspective. I know that publishers are having a hard time staying profitable and while "marketing" was listed as a reason not to publish my book; perhaps Ace is having trouble making even already published series profitable and not willing to take risks with new concepts/books/authors. Well, unless they appear to be the next Harry Potter series.

Lastly, Moira is sharing her 6th book of her series on her website for free (or for donation if you have the money and are willing to part with it). http://moiraj.livejournal.com/ While I'm not a fan of reading the last book in a series, first, knowing it's online for free might prompt people to start reading the entire series. And maybe that's how it will end up being for me as well. Like I said, I'll always write, but I won't spend the rest of my life fighting publishers to finally publish my stuff. Sure, I'll try a couple more and see if someone wants what I've got, but maybe it'll come down to publishing it myself or giving it away for free. Stories were meant to be read, profit or not.

Fantasy Pick

I decided it was time to break from the norm and post a fantasy pick of mine. This is a series I can’t stop raving about. I first came across the movie version of Night Watch, and loved it.

Click Here To See It At Amazon.com

Soon there after I watched the sequel Day Watch:

Click Here To See It At Amazon.com

And I found the book series which includes:

Night Watch

Click Here To See It At Amazon.com

Day Watch

Click Here To See It At Amazon.com

Twilight Watch

Click Here To See It At Amazon.com

and the fore-coming Last Watch (no cover art on amazon yet).

Click Here To See It At Amazon.com

This entire series is an enchanting portrayal of current Russia and a group of people with super human abilities. These "others" have to choose if they will work on the side of light or the side of darkness, and the "watches" have been established to patrol the opposing side. The writing is well done (even after the translation) and the characters, magical powers and the entire basic concept of the plot is intriguing. Then, to see where the author takes the characters, which conflicts he creates and the interesting interplay between staff and boss, light and dark, makes for a beautiful interpretation of a fantasy world that could exist without any of us knowing. If you're looking for a good fantasy read, check this series out.