by Stephen Campbell | Mar 30, 2015 | Podcasts
Are you ever curious about editing?
Bryon Quertermous
Oh sure, we all know what editing is, at least as it pertains to our writing. But my experience of editing is probably much different than yours.
Authors published by the Big 5 wonder if they can find the type of editor they’re used to working with if they indie publish their next book. Indie authors wonder how much control they would lose if they signed a contract with a Big 5 publisher. And, of course, new authors wonder how to find the right editor.
Being a naturally curious fellow, I searched for an editor that could clear some of this up for us. Someone with Big 5 editing experience, who’s now working as a freelancer.
Bryon Quertermous is an editor and an author. His first book, MURDER BOY, is being published March 31st.
He has over a decade of publishing experience that began in New York with Random House. He spent time spent running Angry Robot Book’s crime fiction imprint as well as working as a freelance editor for New York Times bestselling authors. Books he’s edited have been selected as the best of the year by USA Today and Library Journal among others.
Bryon answers my questions on editing and more in this 52-minute interview, including:
- Bryon describes his career in publishing, which included stops at Random House, Angry Robot Books and Carina Press (an imprint of Harlequin) among others.
- How the indie community supports one another when it comes to information sharing and recommendations for top professionals.
- An in-depth conversation covering the different types of edits and the importance of each of them, with a focus on Bryon’s specialty, the developmental edit.
- Byron shares his thoughts on whether or not there is a quantifiable difference between the quality of the editing provided to Big 5 published authors vs. that available to indie published authors.
- How much should an author be prepared to pay for a developmental edit?
- Laura Lippman describes Bryon’s new book, MURDER BOY, as a “Dark comedy with a heart.”
- Bryon describes MURDER BOY and explains why he wanted outside help for the developmental edit of his book.
- Bryon shares his making it up as he goes along marketing plan, and the way serendipity comes into play when you’re hand selling books to local bookstores.
- Bryon offers advice to traditionally published authors interested in becoming hybrid authors
- Bryon offers some surprising advice to first-time authors who will soon be looking for an editor.
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 36Links
Bryon’s Website - www.bryonquertermous.com/
Bryon’s book – MURDER BOY
Loren Estleman’s Website
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by Stephen Campbell | Mar 23, 2015 | Podcasts
Author Monica Leonelle is the guest in Episode 35 of the author biz
Do you ever wish you could write faster?
Monica Leonelle had freelance writer friends who wrote 3,000 - 4,000 word per hour and she wondered if it was possible for her to hit those speeds.
Many of us have asked the “how can I write faster” question, but Monica didn’t stop there. She set out to test her writing speed limits.
She started tracking, adjusting and compiling different metrics. She normalized her writing processes to track different variables. Then she tried other ways of writing, and before long she hit the speeds her freelancer colleagues were achieving.
Then, even better for us, she wrote about how she did it in her new book, WRITE BETTER, FASTER: How to Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day.
So, how did she do it? Monica answers those questions and more in this fascinating 52-minute episode. Here are just a few of the highlights:
- Monica discusses her new book, Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day
- While working as a freelance writer, Monica learned that writing faster meant higher earnings for her business
- She had friends who were freelance writers who could consistently hit 3,000 to 4,000 words per hour
- The value of tracking the details of your writing
- Using the Pomodoro method to normalize writing sessions allowed her to track more details about time spent writing
- Occasionally using dictation allowed her to increase her words per minute and improve her health
- A discussion of the importance of preparation to writing speed
- Monica describes her four-step preparation process
- She shares details of her two-month challenge to teach herself to write faster
- Monica explains her dictation process. She uses Dragon Dictate for dictation and an AT2020 microphone to get the best accuracy.
- The importance of being able to recognize when you’re trying to do too much
- Monica shares three things we can do, beginning today, that will increase our writing speed.
- Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day is the first in a series she’s writing called, “Growth Hacking for Writers.” You can get more information on the series by signing up for her email list at ProseOnFire.com/storytellers
Links
Monica’s Prose on Fire website www.proseonfire.com
Monica’s Guest Post at The Write Life
Monica’s original post on writing faster
Monica’s Growth Hacking for Writers Series
Monica’s Amazon author page.
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 35
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by Stephen Campbell | Mar 16, 2015 | Podcasts
Author Chris Fox is the guest on Episode 34 of The Author Biz Podcast.
Chris Fox
Today’s guest, Chris Fox, is an author who also works as a software engineer for a Silicon Valley startup. That’s a world where careful planning, big thinking and being able to adapt are critical to businesses success.
Chris brought that type of thinking to his author business while writing his first book, NO SUCH THING AS WEREWOLVES. He identified his “ideal reader” in great detail, and learned what he needed to do to reach that reader.
When he launched his book he wasn’t satisfied with the results he was getting so he adapted, tracked the new results, kept what was working and dropped what wasn’t. The net result is that five months after the release of his only full-length novel (the next will be released in April) his book still ranks in the top twenty of three different Amazon categories.
As you’ll hear in the interview Chris also produced an audio version of the book and the results of that effort have been nothing short of amazing.
In this 49-minute episode, we take a deep dive into author marketing and audiobooks covering topics like:
- Chris gives us an overview of the first book in his Deathless series, NO SUCH THING AS WEREWOLVES.
- Chris works in the startup technology world of Silicon Valley and thinks of writing and marketing his books as running a startup business.
- Chris identified an author who is achieving great success in his genre and studied his work and business tactics, prior to launching his own author business.
- Chris describes the initial marketing plan for his first book.
- The creation of “Mythical Bob,” the target reader Chris was hoping to attract with his book.
- Chris breaks his marketing plan into two categories - active and passive.
- The one small keyword change that doubled sales of NO SUCH THING AS WEREWOLVES overnight.
- Amazon maintains a list of keywords that will get a book into specific categories.
- Why Chris chose to be brief with his book description at Amazon, instead of using the entire 4,000 characters available to authors.
- The value of choosing an evocative title for your book
- Chris has built a street team to help with user engagement, reader feedback and discoverability.
- Chris’s next book, NO MERE ZOMBIE, the second in his Deathless series, is scheduled for an April release. He explains what he’ll do differently with the launch of his second full-length novel.
- Chris hired an author’s assistant to help with the launch of his second book. He explains why and how he found his assistant.
- Chris has experienced tremendous success with the audio version of his book and suggests Audio Books for Indies, by Simon Whistler to authors interested in producing audio versions of their books.
- How the Audible algorithm helped fuel the sales of Chris’s audiobook.
- Chris chose to pay his narrator in full rather than doing the Audible royalty split. He explains why and how that decision has worked out.
Links
Chris’s author website www.chrisfoxwrites.com
Chris’s Amazon Author Page
Simon Whistler’s Audiobooks for Indies
Kindle Boards website
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 34
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by Stephen Campbell | Mar 9, 2015 | Podcasts
Helen Sedwick is the guest for Episode 33 of The Author Biz Podcast.
Helen Sedwick
Should you incorporate your author business? How important is record keeping? Do you need a Federal ID number? What should you pay the most attention to when reviewing contracts? What is a copyright and what do I need to do to get one?
For these types of questions, there’s no better person to ask than Helen Sedwick. She’s a business attorney with over 30 years of experience, and the author of what Publisher’s Weekly calls one of the Top Five Resource Books for Indie Authors, THE SELF-PUBLISHER’S LEGAL HANDBOOK.
Helen believes the best time for writers to ask these foundational questions is when they’re getting started, but no matter where you are with your author business this is essential information.
In this 55-minute episode, we take a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of your author business, covering topics like: (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | Mar 2, 2015 | Podcasts
Robin Houghton is the guest for Episode 32 of The Author Biz Podcast.
Robin Houghton
If you’re an author in today’s world, you’re faced with the blogging question. Should I blog or shouldn’t I?
As you may have already guessed, today’s show is all about author blogging. While we may not be able to answer the “should I or shouldn’t I be blogging” question, we will explain why it can help you grow your audience and expand your author platform.
Today’s guest is Robin Houghton, the author of BLOGGING FOR WRITERS. She has over two decades of experience in marketing and communication, and she’s been running her own business, Eggbox Marketing, since 2002. Robin now works primarily with writers and publishing industry professionals to help them make the best use of social media.
In this 62-minute episode, we take a deep dive into author blogging, covering topics like:
- An overview of BLOGGING FOR WRITERS
- The benefits and drawbacks of the three major blogging platforms
- Robin answers the ‘why should authors blog’ question
- Blogging offers an author the opportunity to control the top results readers (and others) will see when searching for you.
- Blogging can improve your writing
- There are numerous objectives authors can reach through blogging
- Determining your blogging persona as part of your planning process
- The value of your author blog increases over time, with the addition of new, timely, relevant, and interesting content.
- The value of your blog is the content, not the look and feel of your site.
- The steps and the costs involved in setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog
- The significance of maintaining an editorial calendar for your blog
- Don’t think of blogging as broadcasting your message to the world. Instead, think of it as building your audience, one person at a time.
- The benefits of being a member of the blogging community
- Robin explains how blogging helps author sites rank better in Google and other search engines.
- The value of analytics to author bloggers
- What analytical metrics should authors focus on?
- The importance of adding a media page to your author website / blog
- Robin shares some advance information on her next book, THE GOLDEN RULES OF BLOGGING (& When to Break Them).
Links:
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 32
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