SPA Girls Podcast – EP153 – From Cookie Cutter To Kapow: Bringing Your Characters To Life
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Name your favourite character from any book you’ve ever read. What did you like best about that character? Was it how they acted? Was it their personality, or because they stood up for something they believed in?
Those are the kinds of questions you should be asking when you’re designing the characters for your next book. This week our topic is how to create characters that your readers will love, and with that in mind we dissect what makes a good character and how you can create characters for your stories that will take your novel to the next level.
We delve into what characteristics are important, how to create tension between the hero and heroine using their personalities and flaws, and how you can use your character’s traits to move the story forward and follow the arc of the plot.
We also talk about how to help your readers to get to know your characters, how to pull them into the story by making them feel like they know your characters really well, and how to make readers cry. (Mawaahahaha….)
Episodes 100 – 200 List
200 What we’ve learned so far…
199 Interview with Adam Croft – Mindset and Marketing
198 Find Your Sparkle – with Julie Schooler
197 Hack Your Muse – with Kelly McClymer
196 Public Speaking For Authors – with Alena Van Arendonk
195 The Magic Pill – with Laura Van Arendonk-Baugh
194 A Day In The Life Of A Writer
193 Keep It Simple
192 Interview with Skye Warren: Money Mindset and Facebook Ads
For Authors (Part Two)
191 Interview with Skye Warren: Time Management & Advertising
For Authors (Part One)
190 Dragon Wrangling with Scott Baker: secrets for
Successful dictation
189 Interview with Patricia McLinn: Writing by the seat of
Your pants
188 Interview with Morgana Best: Writing & Marketing
Cozy Mysteries
187 Interview with Geoff Symon: Wounds & Crime Scenes
186 Interview with Natasha Bajema, WMD for Authors
185 The Writer’s Detective with Adam Richardson
183 Facebook Advertising with Maria Luis ~ Part Two
182 Facebook Advertising with Maria Luis ~ Part One
181 Learn dictation with Kilby Blades
180 Interview with Brian Meeks, Mastering Book Descriptions
179 Interview with Tara Cremin, Kobo Writing Life
178 Interview with Larissa Reynolds – Newsletters Part Two
177 Interview with Larissa Reynolds – Newsletters Part One
175 Wrangling Facebook: How To Make It Work For You
174 How To Write A Regency Romance
173 How Do You Identify Your Writing Weaknesses?
172 Interview With Dan Wood, D2D
171 Interview With Serenity Woods
169 5 Goals You Need To Make In 2019
168 Jumpstart Your 2019 Marketing with 31 Quick To Dos for Jan.
167 Scheduling For Writing Success
166 Our 2018 Roundup
165 He Said, She Said: Creating Dazzling Dialogue
164 Interview with Steffanie Holmes: Reverse Harem
163 Interview with YA author Kelly St Clare
160 Amazon Excl v Wide – things to consider and how to market
159 Interview With Kathryn LeVeque
158 Some Like It Hot – Or Not. Heat Levels In Romance
157 Interview With Louisa George
156 The Kindness Factor: Helping You Achieve More and Stress Less
155 Editing
153 Characters: From Cookie Cutter to Kapow
152 Interview with Tina Dietz: Audiobooks
151 Interview with Grace Burrowes
150 Should You Prune Your Mailing List?
149 RWNZ18 Interview with Damon Suede & Geoff Symon
148 Interview with indie superstar, Bella Andre
147 Top Ten Traits for Success
146 Write Better Faster with Becca Syme
145 Newsletter Ninja Tammi LaBrecque
144 Looking After Your Creative Health
143 Interview with Carlyn Robertson from Bookbub
142 Personal Branding For Authors with Lauren Clemett
141 Ten Free Online Tools For Authors
140 Tempting Taglines & Heartstopping Hooks
139 Findaway Voices with Kelly Lytle
138 Get Your Writing Mojo Back
137 Interview with Toni Kenyon: facebook live & serials
136 Dealing with misinformation and change in Sp-ing
134 Interview with Kevin Tumlinson, Draft2Digital
133 Interview with Sara Rosett
132 Organization For Authors – how to keep track of your
research and book details without losing your mind
131 Interview with Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy
130 Critical Care: Leveraging feedback for success
129 Brand You
128 SAS Special: Interview with Johnny B. Truant & Sean Platt
127 Industry Insiders with Damon J. Courtney of Bookfunnel
& Christine Monroe of Kobo
126 SAS Debrief with Jami Albright
125 SAS Special: Interview with Michelle Spiva
124 SAS Special : Interview With Michael Anderle
123 Sports Psychology for Authors – Interview With Nate Vella
122 Using Sub Plots To Amp Up Your Writing
121 Interview with Scott King: Outlining Your Novel
120 Pen-names Pros, Cons and Possibilities
119 Reader Engagement with Nalini Singh
118 Writing the Small Town Setting
117 Handling Negativity and Naysayers
116 Tough Mindset Questions For 2018
115 Interview With Nicola Davidson: Sex and Sensibility
114 Tropealicious
112 Interview With Honoree Corder & Ben Hale: Write Like A Boss
111 Ten Health Hacks For Writers
110 Interview with Kathryn Burnett: Your Writing Audit For Future Success
109 Interview with Melissa Storm: What Readers Want
108 Interview With Zoe Dawson: Writing Across Genres
107 Interview With Dave Chesson, The Keyword King
106 Pros and Cons of Kindle Unlimited
105 Why YOU should do Nanowrimo
104 Ten Truths For New Self Publishers
103 Find 30 Minutes A Day EXTRA!
102 Your Christmas Presence: Maximizing the Holiday Season for Authors
101 The Writing Life: Interview with Katie Cross
100 100 Episodes! Retrospective with funny moments; changing AO title
SPA Girls Podcast – EP234 – How To Write When Your Schedule Is Disrupted
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Disruption – the entire world is feeling it at the moment, so how can we, as writers, keep our creativity bubbling and stay focussed? It’s hard – we’re not going to deny that – but looking at your schedule and productivity in a different way can help you stay a bit calmer, get some work done and prepare for when you’re on a more even keel.
For the Spa Girls, we’ve pivoted a wee bit to bring you Lockdown Sessions – a daily video of around 10 minutes where we just hang out, sometimes discuss self-publishing, but mostly just lift each other up with our usual cheek and bad jokes. Please join us – either on our facebook page or our new You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCckftViKM301hH_MYlFUxXA
This was a scary move for us all. We’re used to talking on our podcast now, but didn’t have the some confidence about “putting ourselves out there” on camera. Every day we do it though, we’re a little bit more relaxed, so it’s been a good thing that’s come from this disrupted New Normal, I believe (Shar). The best thing for us has been hearing from our community members and we so appreciate your comments (and Subscribes to our channel!). As an experiment, we also recorded the video of this podcast episode, so if you’d like to check that out too, please head over to our channel.
Ways to help deal with a disrupted schedule:
-Ease pressure on yourself by pushing your own deadlines (communicate them early to service providers if you can’t meet them).
-Acknowledging and accepting something has changed, and that it’s ok to be off-balance.
-Create a new schedule by looking at your circumstances and adjusting.
-Don’t beat yourself up because you are not doing the amount of work you were before things changed.
-Find a space to work among the chaos and away from other members of your household
-Life gets disrupted regularly and the tools / skills you figure out now will help in the future when the “usual” disruptions happen – eg holidays, school breaks, illness, travelling etc.
-Don’t overthink things. Change is happening, and roll with it, make the best of it. People will be reading more than ever, so remember that positive!
-If your allotted work/writing time is small, then hit the ground running and be productive while you can. Ten minutes a day can still be productive.
-If the words don’t come, then accept that for now and pivot to doing something else for your author career – e.g. watching a craft tutorial, learning a new skill or tool like canva, reading business / writing books
-As much as possible, focus on positive news and people. Set boundaries on news intake / social media scrolling. Try hard to stay in touch with people that lift you up and in turn be of service to others.
-Romance writers (and other writers) are fulfilling a very real need as a way for people to escape via books – be proud of what you’re doing!
Visit our website for all our podcast episodes and show notes at:
You tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCckftViKM301hH_MYlFUxXA
Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SPAGirlsPodcast
SPA Girls Podcast – EP176 – How to Speak Self Publishing
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Ever listened to someone talking about self publishing and been mystified about what they’re actually saying? Maybe understood about one in every three words?
It’s a common problem, and one we sometimes come across ourselves, as things change in the industry and new jargon hits the streets.
Added to that, even if you decide to look it up online, it’s sometimes not easy to understand.
That’s where the SPA Girls come in. This episode we go through all the self publishing jargon we could think of, and explain what it is, and talk a little about why you might need to know each term and how it’s useful for you in your Indie career.
This episode is packed with great tips around each word, and will hopefully give you an idea of what on earth is going on!
Self-Publishing Glossary / Jargon
A
Active Campaign
Platform for your mailing list. In return for a monthly fee, they host your list, and you can send out emails via their platform. They integrate with your website to manage the sign ups, unsubscribes etc. Expensive platform, but allows a lot of flexibility in terms of sending out emails.
Advertising lists / email marketing promotion sites
Services that have large email lists that they use to promote discounted and free books. Authors pay a fee to the service, in return for their book being sent out to the readers on the list. The most well known service with millions of readers is BookBub. Other options include eReader News Today (ENT), FreeBooksy, Bargainbooksy, Robin Reads and Books Barbarian.
Affiliate Links
Services like Amazon Associates offer the opportunity to receive a bounty in the form of a percentage of the profit for promoting sales of their products.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of rules used by computer programmers, usually to automatically analyse and sort big data (large volumes of information). Amazon has an extremely sophisticated algorithm that helps them figure out which books are bestsellers, which are more popular, and which ones should be promoted to which readers. There is a lot of information on the magical Amazon algorithm, because many believe catching the algorithm helps with sales.
Amazon
The main ebook publishing platform in the world. Can purchase both ebook and print books via Amazon. Accounts for 80% of sales of ebooks. It uses an algorithm to determine which books will be promoted.
ARCs (Advanced Reader Copy)
Copies of your book that you give out to your ARC or Street Team so they can read the book before it’s out, and put reviews up on the various platforms for you when it goes up. Giving out ARCs can help with promotion and marketing—the more you give out, the more buzz you can garner.
Author Bio
About the author blurb.
Author Brand/Platform
An author brand is the feeling/general vibe surrounding your author personality. It should be consistent with the kind of books you write. For example an author who writes sweet contemporary novels shouldn’t write a blog full of the f-word. It is to do with how your readers see you, the author. An author platform can include everything from your website, your newsletter, your facebook page, any facebook groups you run, or are in.
Author Central
The Amazon website where you put up your author details and connect your books to your Amazon author page. You can also check your overall author ranking, your book ranking and your sales ranking.
Author page (Amazon)
A separate page set up under your profile, for you to use for your author activities, and also Facebook Ads.
B
Back matter
This is the information found at the back of your book, after the main novel. It can include the author’s note, newsletter sign up page, or excerpt of the next book in the series at the back. Or any combination thereof.
Bisac Code
BISAC (Book Industry Standards And Communications) subject codes are essentially genre codes used by retailers and are part of your metadata. They help categorize your book in the primary genre, topic and theme so readers can find them when searching the online store. Choose Bisac codes that accurately and clearly describe the content of your book as a whole.
Beta readers
Readers who will read your book before you publish to give you feedback on any issues or problems with your book. They read it as a reader, not an editor, and will generally find things like inconsistencies, plot holes and character problems, and some grammar issues.
Blog tour
Part of promotion of a new release book, authors can pay to go around several blogs by readers and other people interested in books in your genre. They can include posting and excerpt, a post written by yourself, or a question and answer session. They used to be very effective, not sure that they are considered particularly effective any more.
Blurb /Book Description
The information about your book that gives readers the hook, and sells the book to potential readers. In the old system of traditional publishing, a blurb was also the quote that you got from other authors on the cover saying how much they loved your book.
It is most definitely not a description in the sense that you must describe the plot like you would in a synopsis.
C
Call to Action or CTA
Part of the sales jargon. It is the one thing that you want your audience to do after looking at your product. It might be buy the book, buy the next book, or join your mailing list.
Categories
The categories that your book falls into on the various sales platforms that help readers find the books they love to read. They used to go by the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) system which was used by the traditional publishing industry, but in recent years this has evolved, especially on Amazon, and they now use a wider selection of categories.
Copyright
Automatically protects your original works. You may use the symbol © to help you demonstrate that you claim copyright in a particu- lar work, but you do not need to. Protects original works. Copyright is automatic in NZ; in the US you can to apply to register it.
Copy editing/ Line editing
Usually used interchangeably, this level of editing will fix problems with grammar and spelling, but will also go more in-depth and find inconsistencies of plot or character, sentence structure issues, etc etc.
CreateSpace
A print on demand service owned by Amazon where Indie authors can use a pdf print file, an ISBN and a cover to create print books to be sold at Amazon. (And other places if you want to do extended distribution.) It has just been announced that this service is being discontinued, because Amazon also has KDP Print.
D
DRM
Digital rights management. It is possible to check that you want to have DRM on your ebooks, but it’s generally considered a bad idea.
Draft2Digital
An aggregator who you can use to put your ebooks up to all the different platforms if you choose to go wide (instead of being exclusive with Amazon). You can also do audiobooks through Draft2Digital.
Developmental editing / substantive editing/ structural editing /content editing
This is a high level critique of your book, usually commenting on the overall structure and storyline, and usually working with you to fix the overall book. They won’t make changes to grammar and spelling.
E
Epub files
The type of file you will need format your manuscript into to publish your book to be published by Kobo, iBooks, Nook etc (basically everyone else except Amazon). .EPUB
F
Facebook profile / Facebook Page
Your facebook profile is your personal profile on Facebook. Facebook frowns on using this for business. Instead your profile creates a Facebook Page for your author name—this allows you to run ads from that page.
Final Draft
The completely edited and polished final version of your book that you’re going to put up on the publishing platforms.
First draft
Your first version of your novel. Your first draft should never be the draft that goes up on the publishing platforms.
Foreign Rights
Usually rights are for certain areas, and you can sell your print/ebook rights separately.
Formatting
Formatting refers to the process of changing a novel that is in a format such as word or scrivener into a file type that can be used on one of the sales platforms like Kobo, Amazon, or iBooks.
Forums
An online forum such as Romance Divas where you can go and talk with other authors about publishing, writing craft and anything else. It’s all in written form.
Front matter
This is the information found at the front of your book, before the main novel. This could include the copyright page, your news- letter offer, the contents and the dedication page.
G
Goodreads
A social media platform for readers. Includes lists of books, people can mark their favourites, talk in forums with other readers about their favourite books, and give ratings for the books. Ratings on Goodreads tend to be harsher than on Amazon, and the users can be quite vicious if they feel authors are going on there and trying to sell or market their books aggressively.
Google Play
A publishing platform for ebooks, run by google. Locked to new accounts.
H
Hybrid author
Someone who is both traditionally and Indie published.
I
iBooks
A publishing platform for ebooks, owned by Apple. It uses a curated system to decide on which books are promoted.
Indie Publishing
Another word for self publishing (used by some people in preference to self publishing, because of the negative connotations to SP.) In- die stands for Independent. Indie authors are business owners who must organise everything themselves (even if it is simply organis- ing the people who are going to do aspects of the work for them).
Instafreebie
A promotional tool used to gather newsletter subscribers, usuall via a free book (called a reader magnet) or cross promotions with other authors. It worked really well for a while when it first came out, but its effectiveness has waned.
ISBN
The unique number used in the publishing industry to count the number of books and estimate sales. It’s not necessary to have an ISBN on Amazon, they will asign an ASIN to your book, which is their own internal numbering.
In the US it costs a fair amount of money to purchase ISBNs, but in New Zealand they are available for free from the National Library. You need a separate ISBN for each format of your book (ebook, print, etc), and if you’ve substantially changed the book.
ITTN/ITIN/EIN
Tax numbers for the US systems. We no longer need them, as we have a tax agreement with the US, which means we can put our own NZ tax numbers into the system.
J
Jutoh
A computer programme that can be used to format book files for publishing. Can be used on both PC and Mac.
K
KDP Print
Amazon’s print on demand service, started after it purchased CreateSpace. It is done through the same dashboard as KDP, making it quite convenient.
Keywords
In this context they are the words used by the agregators to help describe your book for potential readers. For example Amazon allows you to have seven keywords or phrases, and you should find ones that describe your book’s main tropes and genre traditions.
Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP
Kindle Direct Publishing is the publishing platform used by authors to put their books onto Amazon.
Kindle Unlimited or KU
Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that allows Amazon users in the UK and US to access a large selection of titles from the Kindle store for a single monthly payment. Subscribers can keep up to ten titles to read on any Amazon device or Kindle reading app and there are no due dates.
For authors, to have your books available to KU readers, you must be part of the Select programme, and therefore exclusive to Amazon. (This exclusivity is only for ebooks, you are able to put print on demand books on other sites.)
Payment for authors whose books are in the KU service is via KENP, or pages read. Each month there is a pool of money allocated to be shared among all eligible authors, which is worked out on a per page read basis.
Kobo
A publishing platform for ebooks, owned by parent company Rakuten. Publishes to more than 60 countries worldwide. It uses a curated system to decide on the books being promoted and pushed through the service.
L-N
MailChimp
Platform for your mailing list. In return for a monthly fee, they host your list, and you can send out emails via their platform. They integrate with your website to manage the sign ups, unsubscribes etc. Probably one of the most well known mailing platforms.
MailerLite
Platform for your mailing list. In return for a monthly fee, they host your list, and you can send out emails via their platform. They integrate with your website, and manage the sign ups, unsubscribes etc. Excellent back end, a few deliverability issues, good price.
Meta data
Background information used to help searches. This includes keywords and categories used on retailers. On a website, it is the back- ground information that you have on the site that is not visible to visitors, but helps them be found in search engines.
Mobi files
The type of file you will need to format your manuscript into to publish your book to Amazon. .MOBI
Netgalley
A service, mostly used by traditional publishers, to provide ARCs of books due to be released to people in the industry such as librarians, bloggers, reviewers etc. You pay a monthly or yearly fee for the privilege.
Newsletters/mailing list
This is a personal mailing list of people who have signed up to hear from you specifically about your books. Mailing lists need to be or- ganised via a mailing list platform. Authors can send out to their list weekly, fortnightly, monthly or whenever they release a new book.
OP
Permafree
Permafree means a book is permanently free. It’s a pricing strategy where your ebook (usually first in series) is permanently free on all the booksellers. It is not possible to just put a book permanently free on Amazon, but you can do it by having the book wide, and making it free on at least two other platforms (Kobo and iBooks) and then letting Amazon know and ask nicely for them to pricematch.
POD
Print on Demand. This is a service that will print individual books, rather than requiring publishers to print thousands of books at a time. New digital technology has enabled this kind of service to be viable.
Podcasts
On-demand audio shows, that can be listened to anywhere. A must listen is www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com 😉
Preorders
Used on Amazon, where you can put your book up to be sold, before the actual book is able to purchased.
Proofreading
The last part of the editing process, the proofreader will pick up grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes etc, but will not comment on structural, developmental or larger issues.
Publishing Aggregators
A publishing aggregator is a service that lets you upload your manuscript in one place, and then distributes your work to multiple channels—the retailers who sell you work, such as Apple iBooks, Kobo, Amazon, and more.
QR
Reader Magnet
A free book that you use to entice people to start reading your series, or to get onto your mailing list.
Reviews
Readers leave reviews of your ebooks on Amazon, and Amazon is rumoured to use these reviews (possibly both the overall score and the number of reviews) as part of their magical algorithm. There are rules surrounding who may leave reviews of your books – family and friends are not allowed to leave a review and you can’t offer anything other than an ARC in return for an honest review.
S
Scrivener
A writing programme used by authors. It allows for notes, extra information, photographs, extra folders and everything else you might need to be kept all in one place while you write.
Smashwords
An aggregator to put ebooks up on all the different platforms. One of the first aggregator platforms.
Social media platforms
All the different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, SnapChat, etc etc.
Street team/Review team
The loyal readers who will read your ARCs before your book is published, and give you reviews on the different platforms once your book is live. They can also help with word of mouth, and other promotional activities.
Synopsis
A description of the plot of your book.
T
Target Audience
The people who will most enjoy your books.
Traditional Publisher
The traditional publishing houses who have a team of editors, marketers, booksellers who purchase the rights to sell your books to bookstores, both online and bricks and mortar. They take a large percentage of the profits in order to pay for the printing, distribution and housing of print books. They are the traditional “gatekeepers” to publishing.
Trope
Commonly recurring themes or ideas in a genre. Different genres will have different tropes, for example romance tropes include am- nesia, enemies to lovers, secret baby. Urban Fantasy tropes include kick-butt heroines, magic in an urban environment. Epic fantasy tropes include an outsider hero, or an evil king who must be defeated.
U-Z
Universal Link (Bitly)
A trackable link that you can use in your books, on your website or other places where you use links to obtain data.
Vellum
Vellum is a computer program that can be used on Mac computers to format ebooks.
Wide vs Exclusive
Wide is when you have your books up on all the different platforms like Kobo, Amazon, iBooks, and Nook. Exclusive is when you only have your books up on Amazon, are part of the Select program and have your books in KU.
When you are on Amazon but not in KU or Select, you earn money via book sales but not page reads.
A
Active Campaign
Platform for your mailing list. In return for a monthly fee, they host your list, and you can send out emails via their platform. They integrate with your website to manage the sign ups, unsubscribes etc. Expensive platform, but allows a lot of flexibility in terms of sending out emails.
Advertising lists / email marketing promotion sites
Services that have large email lists that they use to promote discounted and free books. Authors pay a fee to the service, in return for their book being sent out to the readers on the list. The most well known service with millions of readers is BookBub. Other options include eReader News Today (ENT), FreeBooksy, Bargainbooksy, Robin Reads and Books Barbarian.
Affiliate Links
Services like Amazon Associates offer the opportunity to receive a bounty in the form of a percentage of the profit for promoting sales of their products.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of rules used by computer programmers, usually to automatically analyse and sort big data (large volumes of information). Amazon has an extremely sophisticated algorithm that helps them figure out which books are bestsellers, which are more popular, and which ones should be promoted to which readers. There is a lot of information on the magical Amazon algorithm, because many believe catching the algorithm helps with sales.
Amazon
The main ebook publishing platform in the world. Can purchase both ebook and print books via Amazon. Accounts for 80% of sales of ebooks. It uses an algorithm to determine which books will be promoted.
ARCs (Advanced Reader Copy)
Copies of your book that you give out to your ARC or Street Team so they can read the book before it’s out, and put reviews up on the various platforms for you when it goes up. Giving out ARCs can help with promotion and marketing—the more you give out, the more buzz you can garner.
Author Bio
About the author blurb.
Author Brand/Platform
An author brand is the feeling/general vibe surrounding your author personality. It should be consistent with the kind of books you write. For example an author who writes sweet contemporary novels shouldn’t write a blog full of the f-word. It is to do with how your readers see you, the author. An author platform can include everything from your website, your newsletter, your facebook page, any facebook groups you run, or are in.
Author Central
The Amazon website where you put up your author details and connect your books to your Amazon author page. You can also check your overall author ranking, your book ranking and your sales ranking.
Author page (Amazon)
A separate page set up under your profile, for you to use for your author activities, and also Facebook Ads.
B
Back matter
This is the information found at the back of your book, after the main novel. It can include the author’s note, newsletter sign up page, or excerpt of the next book in the series at the back. Or any combination thereof.
Bisac Code
BISAC (Book Industry Standards And Communications) subject codes are essentially genre codes used by retailers and are part of your metadata. They help categorize your book in the primary genre, topic and theme so readers can find them when searching the online store. Choose Bisac codes that accurately and clearly describe the content of your book as a whole.
Beta readers
Readers who will read your book before you publish to give you feedback on any issues or problems with your book. They read it as a reader, not an editor, and will generally find things like inconsistencies, plot holes and character problems, and some grammar issues.
Blog tour
Part of promotion of a new release book, authors can pay to go around several blogs by readers and other people interested in books in your genre. They can include posting and excerpt, a post written by yourself, or a question and answer session. They used to be very effective, not sure that they are considered particularly effective any more.
Blurb /Book Description
The information about your book that gives readers the hook, and sells the book to potential readers. In the old system of traditional publishing, a blurb was also the quote that you got from other authors on the cover saying how much they loved your book.
It is most definitely not a description in the sense that you must describe the plot like you would in a synopsis.
C
Call to Action or CTA
Part of the sales jargon. It is the one thing that you want your audience to do after looking at your product. It might be buy the book, buy the next book, or join your mailing list.
Categories
The categories that your book falls into on the various sales platforms that help readers find the books they love to read. They used to go by the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) system which was used by the traditional publishing industry, but in recent years this has evolved, especially on Amazon, and they now use a wider selection of categories.
Copyright
Automatically protects your original works. You may use the symbol © to help you demonstrate that you claim copyright in a particu- lar work, but you do not need to. Protects original works. Copyright is automatic in NZ; in the US you can to apply to register it.
Copy editing/ Line editing
Usually used interchangeably, this level of editing will fix problems with grammar and spelling, but will also go more in-depth and find inconsistencies of plot or character, sentence structure issues, etc etc.
CreateSpace
A print on demand service owned by Amazon where Indie authors can use a pdf print file, an ISBN and a cover to create print books to be sold at Amazon. (And other places if you want to do extended distribution.) It has just been announced that this service is being discontinued, because Amazon also has KDP Print.
D
DRM
Digital rights management. It is possible to check that you want to have DRM on your ebooks, but it’s generally considered a bad idea.
Draft2Digital
An aggregator who you can use to put your ebooks up to all the different platforms if you choose to go wide (instead of being exclusive with Amazon). You can also do audiobooks through Draft2Digital.
Developmental editing / substantive editing/ structural editing /content editing
This is a high level critique of your book, usually commenting on the overall structure and storyline, and usually working with you to fix the overall book. They won’t make changes to grammar and spelling.
E
Epub files
The type of file you will need format your manuscript into to publish your book to be published by Kobo, iBooks, Nook etc (basically everyone else except Amazon). .EPUB
F
Facebook profile / Facebook Page
Your facebook profile is your personal profile on Facebook. Facebook frowns on using this for business. Instead your profile creates a Facebook Page for your author name—this allows you to run ads from that page.
Final Draft
The completely edited and polished final version of your book that you’re going to put up on the publishing platforms.
First draft
Your first version of your novel. Your first draft should never be the draft that goes up on the publishing platforms.
Foreign Rights
Usually rights are for certain areas, and you can sell your print/ebook rights separately.
Formatting
Formatting refers to the process of changing a novel that is in a format such as word or scrivener into a file type that can be used on one of the sales platforms like Kobo, Amazon, or iBooks.
Forums
An online forum such as Romance Divas where you can go and talk with other authors about publishing, writing craft and anything else. It’s all in written form.
Front matter
This is the information found at the front of your book, before the main novel. This could include the copyright page, your news- letter offer, the contents and the dedication page.
G
Goodreads
A social media platform for readers. Includes lists of books, people can mark their favourites, talk in forums with other readers about their favourite books, and give ratings for the books. Ratings on Goodreads tend to be harsher than on Amazon, and the users can be quite vicious if they feel authors are going on there and trying to sell or market their books aggressively.
Google Play
A publishing platform for ebooks, run by google. Locked to new accounts.
H
Hybrid author
Someone who is both traditionally and Indie published.
I
iBooks
A publishing platform for ebooks, owned by Apple. It uses a curated system to decide on which books are promoted.
Indie Publishing
Another word for self publishing (used by some people in preference to self publishing, because of the negative connotations to SP.) In- die stands for Independent. Indie authors are business owners who must organise everything themselves (even if it is simply organis- ing the people who are going to do aspects of the work for them).
Instafreebie
A promotional tool used to gather newsletter subscribers, usuall via a free book (called a reader magnet) or cross promotions with other authors. It worked really well for a while when it first came out, but its effectiveness has waned.
ISBN
The unique number used in the publishing industry to count the number of books and estimate sales. It’s not necessary to have an ISBN on Amazon, they will asign an ASIN to your book, which is their own internal numbering.
In the US it costs a fair amount of money to purchase ISBNs, but in New Zealand they are available for free from the National Library. You need a separate ISBN for each format of your book (ebook, print, etc), and if you’ve substantially changed the book.
ITTN/ITIN/EIN
Tax numbers for the US systems. We no longer need them, as we have a tax agreement with the US, which means we can put our own NZ tax numbers into the system.
J
Jutoh
A computer programme that can be used to format book files for publishing. Can be used on both PC and Mac.
K
KDP Print
Amazon’s print on demand service, started after it purchased CreateSpace. It is done through the same dashboard as KDP, making it quite convenient.
Keywords
In this context they are the words used by the agregators to help describe your book for potential readers. For example Amazon allows you to have seven keywords or phrases, and you should find ones that describe your book’s main tropes and genre traditions.
Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP
Kindle Direct Publishing is the publishing platform used by authors to put their books onto Amazon.
Kindle Unlimited or KU
Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that allows Amazon users in the UK and US to access a large selection of titles from the Kindle store for a single monthly payment. Subscribers can keep up to ten titles to read on any Amazon device or Kindle reading app and there are no due dates.
For authors, to have your books available to KU readers, you must be part of the Select programme, and therefore exclusive to Amazon. (This exclusivity is only for ebooks, you are able to put print on demand books on other sites.)
Payment for authors whose books are in the KU service is via KENP, or pages read. Each month there is a pool of money allocated to be shared among all eligible authors, which is worked out on a per page read basis.
Kobo
A publishing platform for ebooks, owned by parent company Rakuten. Publishes to more than 60 countries worldwide. It uses a curated system to decide on the books being promoted and pushed through the service.
L-N
MailChimp
Platform for your mailing list. In return for a monthly fee, they host your list, and you can send out emails via their platform. They integrate with your website to manage the sign ups, unsubscribes etc. Probably one of the most well known mailing platforms.
MailerLite
Platform for your mailing list. In return for a monthly fee, they host your list, and you can send out emails via their platform. They integrate with your website, and manage the sign ups, unsubscribes etc. Excellent back end, a few deliverability issues, good price.
Meta data
Background information used to help searches. This includes keywords and categories used on retailers. On a website, it is the back- ground information that you have on the site that is not visible to visitors, but helps them be found in search engines.
Mobi files
The type of file you will need to format your manuscript into to publish your book to Amazon. .MOBI
Netgalley
A service, mostly used by traditional publishers, to provide ARCs of books due to be released to people in the industry such as librarians, bloggers, reviewers etc. You pay a monthly or yearly fee for the privilege.
Newsletters/mailing list
This is a personal mailing list of people who have signed up to hear from you specifically about your books. Mailing lists need to be or- ganised via a mailing list platform. Authors can send out to their list weekly, fortnightly, monthly or whenever they release a new book.
OP
Permafree
Permafree means a book is permanently free. It’s a pricing strategy where your ebook (usually first in series) is permanently free on all the booksellers. It is not possible to just put a book permanently free on Amazon, but you can do it by having the book wide, and making it free on at least two other platforms (Kobo and iBooks) and then letting Amazon know and ask nicely for them to pricematch.
POD
Print on Demand. This is a service that will print individual books, rather than requiring publishers to print thousands of books at a time. New digital technology has enabled this kind of service to be viable.
Podcasts
On-demand audio shows, that can be listened to anywhere. A must listen is www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com 😉
Preorders
Used on Amazon, where you can put your book up to be sold, before the actual book is able to purchased.
Proofreading
The last part of the editing process, the proofreader will pick up grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes etc, but will not comment on structural, developmental or larger issues.
Publishing Aggregators
A publishing aggregator is a service that lets you upload your manuscript in one place, and then distributes your work to multiple channels—the retailers who sell you work, such as Apple iBooks, Kobo, Amazon, and more.
QR
Reader Magnet
A free book that you use to entice people to start reading your series, or to get onto your mailing list.
Reviews
Readers leave reviews of your ebooks on Amazon, and Amazon is rumoured to use these reviews (possibly both the overall score and the number of reviews) as part of their magical algorithm. There are rules surrounding who may leave reviews of your books – family and friends are not allowed to leave a review and you can’t offer anything other than an ARC in return for an honest review.
S
Scrivener
A writing programme used by authors. It allows for notes, extra information, photographs, extra folders and everything else you might need to be kept all in one place while you write.
Smashwords
An aggregator to put ebooks up on all the different platforms. One of the first aggregator platforms.
Social media platforms
All the different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, SnapChat, etc etc.
Street team/Review team
The loyal readers who will read your ARCs before your book is published, and give you reviews on the different platforms once your book is live. They can also help with word of mouth, and other promotional activities.
Synopsis
A description of the plot of your book.
T
Target Audience
The people who will most enjoy your books.
Traditional Publisher
The traditional publishing houses who have a team of editors, marketers, booksellers who purchase the rights to sell your books to bookstores, both online and bricks and mortar. They take a large percentage of the profits in order to pay for the printing, distribution and housing of print books. They are the traditional “gatekeepers” to publishing.
Trope
Commonly recurring themes or ideas in a genre. Different genres will have different tropes, for example romance tropes include am- nesia, enemies to lovers, secret baby. Urban Fantasy tropes include kick-butt heroines, magic in an urban environment. Epic fantasy tropes include an outsider hero, or an evil king who must be defeated.
U-Z
Universal Link (Bitly)
A trackable link that you can use in your books, on your website or other places where you use links to obtain data.
Vellum
Vellum is a computer program that can be used on Mac computers to format ebooks.
Wide vs Exclusive
Wide is when you have your books up on all the different platforms like Kobo, Amazon, iBooks, and Nook. Exclusive is when you only have your books up on Amazon, are part of the Select program and have your books in KU.
When you are on Amazon but not in KU or Select, you earn money via book sales but not page reads.
SPA Girls Podcast – EP106 – Pros and Cons of Kindle Unlimited
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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This week we talk about Kindle Unlimited, or KU, as it’s commonly known. KU is the exclusive readers’ programme for Kindle customers on Amazon, which authors can join as long as they give exclusivity to Amazon. We discuss the pros and cons of going into the KU programme versus going wide on all the different platforms available to self published authors, plus we cover some of the different marketing tactics you might employ, and ways to effectively use the KU platform as an author. It’s an information-packed episode, and if you’ve been wondering whether to join KU, or if you’re trying to find ways to use it better, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!
For Writers: How to get into KU: Sign up your book exclusively to Amazon via KDP Select for 90 day period at a time. Your book will automatically be included in Kindle Unlimited Program.
For Readers: Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s ebook subscription launched July 2014. Costs $9.99 per month and readers can read unlimited books in the program, but only download ten at a time.
From Amazon: “Kindle Unlimited is currently available only to US customers on Amazon.com. Customers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, India, China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Canada can sign-up for Kindle Unlimited in their local Amazon marketplace. We also plan to expand this service to other countries. Please stay tuned.”
Authors earn an amount per page read (which changes monthly – last month – Sept – it was 0.0044c per page)
PROS:
Simplification – easy to upload to one provider
Additional revenue stream from Amazon – sales and reads
All Star Bonuses – in addition to Page Reads the top authors earn monthly bonuses (from $1k – 25k)
ebook borrows can improve your visibility and sales ranking in the Kindle store
Money – can be difference between replacing your income or not
Amazon = easier discovery; wide needs long build and $
CONS:
All Your Eggs Into One Basket / Exclusivity
Don’t know what the rate is until the 15th of the following month
Don’t know what pages are read from what books
Reviews from KU readers are not verified
Don’t know how KENPC is calculated – AMZ doesn’t share how it’s calculated.
Issues with page reads calculations / authors not believing they were getting paid correctly
Can be hard to switch to Wide having built audience in KU
LINKS:
Amazon Kindle Unlimited Program For Authors
Written Word Media: What KU Means For Authors
