This weekend, From Boardroom To Blackbox will be free for all those college students, theater nuts or new project managers that just want to learn how to be organized without being bored to death!
I wrote my first ebook two years ago. It was a test, more or less, to see if I could finish a book, get it edited, get a cover design and publish it.
Some things went right. Many things went wrong. Many, many things. Wrong things first, since I believe getting the bad stuff out of the way! If you’re a new novelist and you’re looking to learn for mistakes of those who came before you, read along!
Cover
A good cover is worth its weight in advertisement. I want to go deeper into it but I think the picture above says a thousand words. Over two years, the book didn’t sell well, despite the information inside. What can be said, the packaging was terrible and it didn’t reach the people it needed to: new PMs and disorganized Theater folks looking for answers to their issues without being preached to.
So what did I do for the cover?
First, I read Creative Indie’s Website from front to back. It’s full of knowledge and has a solid perspective about how to sell a book. He also has a very good youtube channel that is very frank and very informative. Afterward, I performed a ton of research on book covers I liked, found some really nice pictures and put them together in Photoshop CC. Surprisingly it didn’t take long and, well…the results speak for themselves.
What About Fiverr?
I’m a huge proponent of fiverr as both a buyer and a seller, but when it comes to book covers…well…you get what you pay for. I made the mistake of trying to be quirky and different and for two years I had minimal sales. Being a cliche’ isn’t bad as long as the meat of the book is sound. Also, there are graphic designers who specifically do book cover work and you can find a list here if you don’t want to do it yourself.
Formatting
So Creative Indie does have free minimalist templates when you sign up and they are fantastic, but I decided to use InDesign’s ebook format for more control. Yes, I do know that Adobe’s Creative Cloud is expensive, but it is worth the headache as when you format, you know what you’re getting and when you publish it will work on every device and look the same every time, no matter where it’s uploaded. Yes, there is Scrivener, Calibre and such, but I didn’t want to deal with the headache of knowing new software. I found my own fonts and made sure the cover and internal text matched. Formatting takes a while, even with a template, so give yourself a few days.
For those who are having the following issues if you upload to KDP / Smashwords:
- Referenced resource could not be found in the EPUB. (ERROR)
- File ‘META-INF/encryption.xml’ in EPUB not listed in manifest!Your .epub file is missing one or more elements in its manifest. A complete manifest is required for distribution to Apple. Here’s how Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB) defines “Manifest”:”The manifest element lists all the files contained in the package. Each file is represented by an item element, and has the attributes id, href, media-type. All XHTML (content documents), stylesheets, images or other media, embedded fonts, and the NCX file should be listed here.”
Now is a good time to get familiar with Sigil and EPUB Validator. When I first started formatting my books, I had so much of a headache trying to figure these out these errors. When it comes to inDesign error trouble shooting, both the program and website is god sent. Please learn from my mistakes; I made plenty! A lot of your errors will be in the following file: idGeneratedStyles.css
- Referenced resource could not be found in the EPUB. (ERROR) & File ‘META-INF/encryption.xml’ in EPUB not listed in manifest!
- This means that your epub is missing something that it can’t reference to. For me, it meant installed fonts I was using was not there. Once I went into Sigil, deleted the initial installed fonts and reinstalled them, the error disappeared. This is also a MUST if you want to submit to Apple. All this means is that certain eReaders do not accept the embedded fonts you used while formatting your book. Once you delete these options, you will pass.
Note: This is a lesson I also learned from Smashwords if you so desire to use their platform. First, note that Smashwords only allows reflowable epubs instead of fixed format. They still cater to Epub 2.01 but if you have have inDesign, you can still export the .noc file as well as the .xhml file without much hassle. I thought I was going to have to gruel it out, but Adobe made it quiet easy! Thank gawd!
Websites, SEO & Social
I think this is a touch one for all writers; I may as go as far as many creatives in general. I initially felt the same way: I just wanted to create art and have the art sell itself. As Warren Buffett shows in this kiddo cartoon, that’s not how business works.
Having the best lemonade ever doesn’t mean anything if no one knows about it. So instead of seeing my work as ‘a product to be marketed’, I switched my mindset as an ‘inexpensive gift for the receiver’. My work will bring moments of brevity, or ‘aha’ moments of enlightenment to said receiver, so why wouldn’t I want to talk about it? I use Facebook, Reddit and WordPress. I also use the Jetpack plugin for WordPress to send out news to multiple places without having to slog through login hell all the time. Not only does it help me with social outreach; it also helps me with web security. Double win. I was also told that Quora is a great way to talk to be social.
Last, I never got a landing page for my mailing list. These are extremely important. Your mailing list is your life blood and also a direct way your readers can contact you, or get benefits that non subscribers miss out on. It’s a win on both sides. Get a website and a mailing list. It’s worth it. Scale when you need too, but at least have one.
What About SEO?
I found that SEO isn’t really that complicated if one has the mindset of a library, or a stack of books. SEO means that you’re just putting your work on the top of the stack. Now the voodoo is finding out what the official ‘top of the stack is’! That’s where help comes in.
I used to think that my personal version of the ‘top of the stack’ translated to the general populous and boy, was I wrong. So wrong that this blog post is really more of reminder for me than anyone else! There are two options for beginners. The first is KDP Rocket, which is a for purchase version but very good at what it does from what I garner. It will help you find keywords and secret keywords to set your work aside from the pack and on the top of the list. The second is Booksprout, which is free but you have to sign up. It’s not as detailed as KDP Rocket, but it’s a good start to educate yourself in SEO. Before I go further, neither site gives me kickbacks; I just experimented with both so I can see what works for me.
So What Did I Do Right?
Well, I finished From Boardroom To Blackbox and got it edited via Fiverr. This is the gentleman I used and I would high recommend him. He’s not a copywriter, but he will edit grammar and the like for a good price and fast delivery. I don’t use him now since I have beta readers and an editor that I can talk to face to face.
Second, I didn’t give up on my initial book. I was extremely bummed that I didn’t make my initial investment back, but I found this a great opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Even though is not fiction or erotica, it’s still relevant and still useful to the right people.
Last, I kept my name. I didn’t want so many nom de plumes that I didn’t know what is what. One name is good enough and if readers don’t dig my spread of offerings, then I’m not for them. Despite writing erotica, romance and sci fi, I have a very technical background in coding, entertainment and project management; these can’t be ignored as it makes all the work I do relevant. I’m not ashamed of what I do and neither should anyone else.
I hope this helps. Please pick up From Boardroom To Blackbox FOR FREE this weekend and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter!
Until the next book!
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