I need to start writing more. I can't sell eBooks if I don't write them

A couple of nights ago I lost sleep to make sure and polish then upload my first book back onto Kindle and Barnes and Noble. I was so happy and relieved to put that behind me and be able to concentrate on finishing up book #2. But I haven't even touched it. I realized that I have spent my past 2 lunch hours reading the success stories of other self published/indie authors instead of using that time to finish my own work and get started on book #3.

Now, I have always loved a good underdog comes out on top and rags to riches story, be it in novels or in real life. But when I am wrapped up in these stories shouting "you GO girl" and "yeah buddy" I am not helping myself further my writing career. I have to stop. It's like an addiction, especially with my pathetic sales. It gives me hope, you know?

Game face on, it's Friday and I plan to skip reading up on the wonderful successes of the fabulous ones that have gone before me and work on prayerfully becoming a success story myself. :)

If you would like to read up on some of these authors and find out what they have accomplished and sacrificed to get where they are now you can visit any or all of the following blogs.

Get some inspiration and then AIS people. Ass in seat and gets ta writing!

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

http://selfpublishingsuccessstories.blogspot.com/

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/

Happy Writing

Writing and revising the non-fiction e-book, no help from Amazon or Barnes and Noble

A few months ago I uploaded my ebook to Kindle and Nook. Then my computer crashed and I lost my original manuscript. Since then I read an article on previewing your ebooks and going over it with a fine tooth comb as it is always easier to find typos etc when you've have some time away from your work.

And that is exactly what I found. Except how could I fix these problems with my final draft gone? I emailed KDP and Barnes and Noble and got no help. I explained my situation and asked if it was possible to get what I uploaded sent back to me as an email attachment. I didn't think it would be a problem as big as these sites are. I was wrong, this is what I got back in return.

From KDP/Amazon

Hello Lyza,

I'm sorry, we are unable to provide the content file of your book. However, you can download the uploaded copy of your book in MOBI format by following these steps:

1. Visit https://kdp.amazon.com and log in.
2. Check the box at the left side of the book and then click on the "Actions" button at the top left.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to "Preview Your Book," under the box labeled "Enhanced Previewer box" Click on "Download Book Preview File"
4. Click on "Back to Bookshelf" to return to the previous page.

Also, please ensure you have Kindle previewer installed on your computer before trying to view your Kindle book. If you don't have one installed, click on "Download Previewer - Windows or Mac" found under "Download Book Preview File."

I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

From Barnes and Noble

Hello,

There is no need for you to purchase a copy of your own eBook. To
download a current copy of the .epub file for yourself, log in your
PubIt! account. On the "my titles" tab, next to your eBook's title,
click "Actions" and then "Edit". This will load the "Edit/Add A Title"
page.

On the "Edit/Add A Title" page, scroll down to section 2, entitled
"Upload Your eBook". In the lower part of that section you should see a
box with the following:

"
Want to make changes?

There are two ways to edit your NOOKbook.

Option 1: Take a look through our _Formatting
Best Practices_ to learn more about how best
to format your source document, make some
changes, and then upload your fixed file and
reconvert.

Option 2: _Download the ePub file_ and make
changes to it. Note that knowledge of HTML
and ePub are necessary to tweak your ePub.
"

Click the link that says "_Download the ePub file_" next to Option 2,
and the system will offer you a copy of the .epub file. Please note,
this will give you a non-encrypted (non-DRM) copy of the ePub file. To
test the layout of your eBook, view the .epub file using either "NOOK
for PC" or "Adobe Digital Editions". Below are links to the installers
for each of these two reading applications:

Adobe Digital Editions:
http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

NOOK for PC:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-pc/379002322

For help reading your own .epub file on a NOOK reading device, please
contact Barnes & Noble Customer Service. Tell them that you're trying to
"side-load" an .epub file into your NOOK device. Here is a link to the
web-based Customer Service system:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/customer_service/morehelp.asp
You can also call 1-800-THE-BOOK (1-800-843-2665) to request help on
this topic.

Sincerely,
The PubIt! Team

Thanks for nothing. In case you got bored and didn't tread completely through each email response, they both basically gave me instructions on previewing my book, something I had already done, which is why I wanted to get my uploaded draft back in the first place so that I could edit and update.

I would have been more satisfied with a simple "No, sorry we can not help you" than with what I got. If I had emailed asking how to preview my own book I could understand, but I didn't.

Anyway, thank God, I found a rough draft of the final draft and went to town. Over the course of the day I have spent a total of almost 6 hours on this and just uploaded my latest revisions.

Had I not found it, I would be royally screwed as I would have had to retype the entire 52 pages from the preview option on either site.

Anyway, now I can get back to book #2 and outlining #3 with a lighter load, it was irking the hell outta me, let me tell you.

Good night everyone :)

E-book Authors Selling Big Numbers on Kindle

When  I log on and see that I've only made another 2 sales in the past few days I get discouraged. No, I don't want to stop trying, but I am human and so it's daunting at times. Then I read about an e-book author list naming names and counting numbers.

So if you, like me, are looking for a little encouragement that it can be done, here is a list of e-book authors that have sold 50,000+ books as of March 2012.

The list was alphabetized on the Kindle Forum by Zelah Meyer . I'm here and Zelah is in England, thinking, thinking, got it...we should trade places ala Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet in The Holiday :) Let me know Zelah, anytime!

Susan Alison http://montyandrosie.blogspot.com/

Melody Anne 150,000

Dani Amore

Bella Andre
http://books.usatoday.com/happyeverafter/post/2011-11-02/interview-bella-andre-e-book-phenom-and-author-of-from-this-moment-on/560623/1

Jake Barton

Robert Bidinotto

J Carson Black
http://donnanewton.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/30-second-interview-with-j-carson-black/

Cheryl Bolen 145,000

Kathleen Brooks

Catherine Bybee

Sarra Cannon 62,400

Karen Cantwell 86,000

Ruth Cardello

Darcie Chan
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-i-became-a-best-selling-author-.html

Mel Comley

Shelly Crane

Martin Crosbie 66,700

Blake Crouch

Chris Culver

David Dalglish - around 175,000
http://greghamerton.com/2011/11/indie-fantasy-authors-to-watch-david-dalglish/

Susan Denning 60,000

Saffina Desforges
http://saffinadesforgesblog.com/2011/12/21/official-annoucement-publishing-deal-for-sugar-spice-by-saffina-desforges/

Mainak Dhar - almost 100,000

Mark Edwards & Louis Voss

Sandra Edwards 90,000

Ellen Fisher - over 100,000

Penelope Fletcher - over 50,000 (? how much over?)

Tina Folsom
http://books.usatoday.com/happyeverafter/post/2011-11-04/interview-e-book-rock-star-tina-folsom-author-of-zanes-redemption/561641/1

Marie Force - 200,000 in the last year

Barbara Freethy
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/author-barbara-freethy-sells-over-one-million-self-published-e-books-in-2011-132522313.html

Jenny Gardiner

Eliza Gayle 65,000

Debora Geary

Lee Goldberg

Allan Guthrie 63,000

Gemma Halliday

Liliana Hart 100,000

Michael Hicks approaching 100,000

Amanda Hocking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/amanda-hocking-self-publishing

Sheila Horgan - over 80,000

Hugh Howey - over 100,000

Nancy C. Johnson

Ty Johnston - over 60,000

Selena Kitt

J.A. Konrath
http://www.jakonrath.com/bio.htm

Eve Langlais - over 56,000

Stephen Leather
http://publishingebooks.blogspot.com/

Jason Letts / foreverjuly - almost 50,000

Victorine Lieske
http://www.ckvolnek.com/4/post/2011/8/meet-best-selling-author-victorine-lieske.html

John Locke

Terri Giuliano Long
http://www.novelpublicity.com/2012/01/thanks-to-you-how-book-bloggers-sparked-the-indie-publishing-revolution/

Carole Davis Luce - 100,000

CJ Lyons
http://romanceuniversity.org/2011/12/19/indie-pubbing-and-the-nyt-list-with-cj-lyons/

H.P. Mallory
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hpmallory

KC May

Bob Mayer
http://www.bobmayer.org/

David McAfee


Stephanie McAfee
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/new-in-paperback-stephanie-mcafees-diary-of-a-mad-fat-girl/2012/01/30/gIQA7sDLxQ_story.html

Courtney Milan

Rick Murcer
http://blog.writingspirit.com/top-10-ebook-articles/

Scott Nicholson

Anne Marie Novark - Over 75,000

Shayne Parkinson - over 50,000 (? how much over?)

Michael Prescott - 995,000!

Rose Pressey

T.R. Ragan 239,592

Terri Reid
http://jimthewriterb.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/terri-reid-sells-60000-ebooks-in-her-first-year/

Adam Rendon
http://www.therip.com/features/2011/09/08/local-author-sells-over-100000-copies-of-self-published-novel/

Lexi Revellian

Shadonna Richards

Imogen Rose

Nick Russell over 100,000

L.J. Sellers

Michele Scott - 100,000

Tori Scott 84,000

Christopher Smith 700,000

Andy Straka

Michael J Sullivan
http://www.ridanpublishing.com/michaelsullivan.html

Denise Grover Swank 60,000

Vicki Tyley 100,000

Heather Killough-Walden

Michael Wallace - over 80,000

Kerry Wilkinson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/08/self-published-author-amazon-ebook

Nicole Williams

Rachel Yu - over 60,000

I wonder how many sales they are making over on Barnes and Noble.

There is hope, happy writing.

Spreading the word aka Marketing my e-book

Why oh why is it so hard to market? For me at least. It has gotten to a point where I find myself zoning out at my desk or Starbucks and even while driving. Just trying to figure out ways to get my book in front of the people who can benefit from it, other single mothers who live on a tight budget but love to travel. Some might say that the easiest thing to do is to visit blogs that have single mothers as their target market as well. But how?

Not only is my target a very niche market but I prefer not to randomly visit blogs as a one off just to leave a comment with my blog or book as my signature. Yet I don't have time to visit the thousands of blogs that might be beneficial in getting my book into my target markets hands. I did email about a dozen site and blog owners a few months ago asking if any of them would be interested in a free copy of my book. Sadly, no responses. I mean WTF!:)

As I mentioned before I have to choose one form of marketing and dedicate time to it. Because seriously there are so many opinions about what works best that it can drive a girl mad.

I decided on using Yahoo Answers for a while and answering questions thoughtfully and closing with a signature link to my blog. I have seen a slight uptick in visits though no sales from it yet. Though I will keep at it since I can easily answer 5 or more questions in 10-15 minutes.

And I know that I have to add to that, just not sure what to choose yet. Maybe you have some ideas for a sista cuz I need help. Check out this very partial list of e-book marketing ideas you get on the web:

Bookmarks (for an e-book? really?)
Create Hype (okay, um how?)
Contests (This I want to do, perhaps a giveaway though instead of a contest)
Word of Mouth (The mecca o'marketing in my humble opinion)
Create a website for each book (no can dosville baby doll - I can barely keep up with my blog peeps)
Create a book trailer (this sounds fun and I have seen some cool ones)
Sign up at affiliate sites (I don't know, seems sketchy to me, but maybe it's just the word "affiliate")
Be active on forums (read above)
Write guest posts (I'd love too, anyone? people?)
Use coupons (?)
Business cards (?)
Use Twitter (read below)
Use Facebook (read below)

And these are just some, it's intimidating. I am not a social network person though a fellow newbie BIWer suggested Goodreads to me, thanks Laura . It seems insincere and not all organic to only put up a FB page to promote my book, so what am I to do? Make a page anyway and force myself to check it and update it daily?

For now I will keep on writing and editing and posting on Yahoo Answers. I'll keep you posted on they next move in my massive publicity campaign. :)

Writing fiction is like hard and stuff

Last week I signed up for the writing challenge over at Book In a Week .

Why? I need the practice. When I was a teenager I wrote all the time. I was always jotting down poems and songs and even short stories. Fast forward to my 20s and I started about 4 novels, no I never finished any of them, but I did start. One even got into the 7th chapter, go Lyza, go Lyza!

Yet as I sat down in front of my laptop last week to start work on my short story, I froze.

Then I googled how to write a short story :) I am not ashamed here people. Everyone needs a hand up at times. And this time it's me. I stumbled upon Book in a Week and decided I liked the premise. You sign up, get approved and list your goal for the week. I started with a modest 15 pages, then you write and write, you don't worry about editing during this time you just put your words down every day for an entire week.

The people on that site are some of the nicest people you will ever meet online. A few reached out to me personally just to say hello and welcome me. For an introvert like me, it was nice to be taken into the fold on a site where it seems most of the people have been friendly for months or even years. You should check the site out.

We start on Monday and I am looking forward to it. I liken it to actors who take acting and improv classes to improve their craft. Never stop learning. And hey, if you meet some nice people along the way, all the better. :0)

Pen names for E-books

Obviously every writer's goal is to make money with their writing. And as I read articles, e-books and blogs it seems that getting more e-books out there is one of the key ways to gain exposure and make more sales which equals more money.

But what if you want to expand and write in different genres and categories?

There are some e-book authors doing quite well while crossing genres and using different pen names. I think I may do the same.

I do love writing non fiction budget travel books, but I have other things I long to work on. The biggest is to start and actually complete a contemporary romance novel. I say complete because over the years I have started and abandoned a few novels. Gotta work on that follow through :)

I think I am going to go with pen names for my next few projects. One is that I have been told that ethnic sounding names, like mine, do not sell as well. People assume they will not relate to your work. I pray that after I get a few reviews that I can overcome that with my books. No matter my name I am a single mom and I write for other single moms, it's as simple as that.

I do have other Traveltini's for my Broke Single Mom series that I want to put out in the next couple of months. I also have a couple of short stories I want to get started on, the issue is timing and organization.

With my Traveltini books its about research and compilation while my short stories should be pretty easy to get down on paper as they are both fictionalized versions of my dating life.

For now I will keep my very ethnic sounding last name on my non fiction titles and I will be brain storming pen names for my shorts.

And if when I finish my novel I will decide if I use one of the names I am already using or if a new pen name is in order. :)

Writing and selling the non-fiction e-book

Some people say that writing non fiction is the way to go if you want to make money fast. I haven't the slightest if this is true. What I do know is what is true for me and that is that I haven't made enough money yet to even cover my costs.

So why am I continuing to write non fiction? Especially when so many writers are caking it (making money hand over fist) with fiction?

Because I genuinely enjoy writing about shoestring budget travel, time flies when I am writing and doing research and crunching numbers. And I believe that once I get my name and books "out there" and noticed I will be helping so many people that are just like me. Single parents that believe the only way to take their kids on a vacation is to either visit family out of town or set up camp and sleep in a tent.

In this day and age there is no reason that almost everyone shouldn't be able to take a week off and have a grand old time of it without going into credit card debt. My 5 day Chicago vacation was around $400, including Amtrak tickets, parking, food and hotel and we got blessed and stayed at the amazing Embassy Suites a few blocks from the Navy Pier. Meanwhile my sister went camping near Washington DC for 4 days and spend $400 just on the camp site. A nice camp site to be sure, with a lake, pool and cafe, but at the end of the day she was still roughing it.

I do want to write a novel, most writers do. But for right now I will write my next few non fiction books to add to my virtual shelf space and take it from there.

So if you have a passion for something, gardening, cooking or playing the piano and want to share your knowledge and write about it, then do. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't a market  for it or that you are wasting your time.

Do what makes you happy and then market the heckaroni out of it! And if it works then yay for you! If it doesn't? Well at least you won't spend the next 20 or 30 years wondering "what if".

Oh wow! Slow sales, does this mean there is no hope? And my new e-book cover.

Hey all, I am in a pretty iffy place right now. So I'll give you the rundown.

-I have decided to shut down the blog that I created just for my readers
-My job is getting me down
-My sales suck, big time!
-Editing my second book, waiting for new cover

I have now asked anyone that visits my Broke Single Mom blog to come on over here and check me out. I've only gotten 5 visits on that blog in the past 4 months, so I doubt it will be a problem.

My job? Well it's a job and my biggest professional desire is to be able to support myself and my family with my writing so no matter what, it's not where I want to be 5 days a week.

My sales? Well over the past 4 months I have only had about 20 sales and yes, that is counting both Nook and Kindle. Have a done much promoting? Er, no. Why? Er, cuz I'm a dumb ass that's why.

It is so overwhelming and frustrating and not a little scary to try and follow all of the advice out there for e-book writers when it comes to marketing. If I were to follow even just the top 10 I would have no time to sleep. It seems my fellow e-book authors spend just as much, if not more time on marketing than they do writing. Where do they find the energy and time?

I have to just pick one and try it for a while. I have decided to utilize Yahoo Answers and use my signature to try and attract interested topical readers to purchase my book. I will answer budget vacation questions, no spamming, I will give them thoughtful answers pertaining to what they need. It helped me get eyes on my blogs in previous years, let's see if it helps me this time around.

I am not a social networking person, I do not have a Face book or Twitter account. I may have to soon if sales don't pick up though.

As for my second book, I am in the middle of editing and also waiting for my designer to implement a few changes to the mock up he sent me. He actually got my ideas almost right on the money but when I saw the finished product the bottle bothered me.

As you can see from the mock up it's a book on a New York City vacation on a shoestring budget of $600. I will post the updated cover as soon as I get it.

Honestly, some days it feels like I am destined to be a worker bee in someone else's hive for the rest of my life. But I push through it, what other choice do I have? I let life happen and did not start going after my dream until recently. I can't keep doing that to myself. I just bought an inspirational mini plaque, it reads;

DREAM YOUR LIFE....LIVE YOUR DREAM

I like it, it spoke to me, as they say.

Here's to dreaming!