Time to Write

Need a Good Title for Your Non-Fiction Book or Newsletter?

In a previous post, I wrote about how the Oberlo Business Name Generator can be useful for coming up with a fictional name or a business that appears in your screenplay or novel. The same tool can be helpful if you're trying to come up with a good name for a non-fiction book or newsletter.

You just type in one word you'd like to have in the title. The Generator comes up with 100 combinations. 

For instance, I'm thinking of publishing a creativity newsletter, so I entered the word "Creativity." Here are some of the titles the Generator came up with, some more mainstream than others:

Power Creativity

Black Sheep Creativity

Creativity Precision

OneMan Creativity

Retina Creativity

Affinity Creativity

Creativity Signals

Simply Creativity

Jumpstart Creativity

Immersion Creativity

Scribe Creativity

High Voltage Creativity

Creativity Road

CreativityGram

Creativity Frontier

Creativity Fix

Creativity Driver

These could work equally well as titles for a book about creativity.

WANT SOMETHING LESS OBVIOUS?

If you want something less obvious, see whether any of the words that were combined with your keyword could work by themselves. In my example, "High Voltage," "Jumpstart," "Signals," or "Retina" could all work as trendier creativity newsletter titles, or as main titles for a book, and you could use a secondary title to connect it to creativity.

People DO judge a book by its cover - 3 bad examples

The stigma of self-publishing and assisted publishing (in which you pay a publisher to produce your book) is long gone. Many good and successful books have been self-published both traditionally and as ebooks. But one thing that seems to have persisted is the tradition of terrible covers.

People DO judge a book by its cover. If the cover is not inviting, they are unlikely to check out the rest of it.

I hope I'm not being cruel by including these three examples. Just to be clear, I'm not saying these books are bad in any way other than their cover design.  Their content may well be brilliant but I find the covers a turn-off. Let's take a look:

Any idea what this one might be about?

No, me neither.

It's actually a science fiction thriller. 

Less can be more, but in this case, it's less.

It reminds me of the joke, "Not only is the food terrible, the portions are way too small." In this case, not only is the type boring, it's way too small.

 

 

 

 

At least the title of this one gives you some clue as to the genre, but since the protagonist is an 11-year-old boy I assume it's geared to young readers. Do you think they'd be curious to turn to the first page?

Could the designer have made the secondary print any smaller? It says, "A boy trying to find his meaning in the universe unexpectedly saves it." Not a bad logline. Too bad you need a magnifying glass to read it. Ditto for the line telling us this is "The First Book in the Secret Agent Series."

 

 

Didn't ANYBODY notice that the image makes it hard to read the title and the name of the author? Making the text white would have solved that, although it wouldn't have made it a good cover.

Based on the title ("To Slight the Jacket Blue") and image, what kind of book do you think this is? 

My guess was poetry.

The blurb is, "When Ned is sent to the Caribbean to hunt pirates, he hopes to avenge the death of his best friend, Sam."

Pirates! Adventure! Danger!

Too bad all the cover says is, "Waves on a gloomy day."

These three are all from a company called fastpencil. Their design services include custom cover design for $299, Custom PLUS cover design for $599, and Premium Cover Design for $899. The covers of most of their books are case studies in what not to do. If any of the three authors above paid a penny for their cover designs they should ask for their money back.

 

 

 

 

 

If you're a writer, there are no opportunities

In his book, Creative Mischief, advertising genius Dave Trott writes:

"I hear people complaining that there are no opportunities.

That no one will give them a chance.

There's nothing they can do and it's not their fault.

Here's a thing. 

There have never been any opportunities.

No one was ever feeling sorry for themselves, when someone knocked on the door and said, "How would you like me to show you a way out of this?"

It doesn't happen like that.

Never has, never will.

That's like sitting around hoping to win the lottery.

It's about hope. 

And hope is putting your problem in somebody else's hands,

Hope isn't very creative."

THE ALTERNATIVE TO HOPE IS ACTION

Trott goes on to give some examples of people in the advertising world who took action when there were no opportunities. I've done it a few times myself:

When I moved to Hollywood and had no contacts, I started a newsletter about screenwriting and interviewed agents, producers, and experienced writers. Through those contacts, I was able to get an agent.

When I noticed that there was a new person appointed to be the head of a publishing division for business personal development books, I called to find out her email address. I congratulated her and mentioned that I happened to have an idea for that kind of book and described it in a couple of lines. She asked for more information, then to meet, and eventually published three of my books. 

And one non-business example: When I was a teenager I read in the paper that Rod Serling, the producer, writer, and frontman of my favorite TV series, The Twilight Zone, was ill and in the hospital. I wrote him a letter care of the hospital and got a handwritten thank-you note from him. I cherished that note until it burned up in my house fire, and I still cherish the memory of it.

WHAT IF YOU DON'T FIND THIS EASY?

In case you're thinking, "Sure, you're the kind of person who finds that sort of thing easy." 

Not true.

I've always suffered from what these days is called social anxiety.

One time, I had the chance to go to a basketball game with Walter Matthau and some of his friends--a great networking opportunity. I was too shy to go.

Another time, I signed up for a residential writers' conference sponsored by the Writers Guild. It was a two-hour drive from Los Angeles. I drove all the way there, panicked, and drove all the way back.

However, the times I managed it have accounted for some real breakthroughs, so it's worth the push. If you are frustrated because there don't seem to be any opportunities, try thinking of how you can make some--even if it's a challenge.

How to Name Your Novel or Screenplay

The first thing that attracts people to your book is the title. Here are a few guidelines for coming up with a title that will grab readers of fiction (these also work for screenplays):

• Make it appropriate for the genre. Sure, it can be fun to give your book an ironic title, but the only people who will know that it's ironic are the people who have already read the book.
  
  
• Avoid generic titles. For instance, if your crime or thriller novel has the word "killing" in it, combine it with a more unusual word or phrase. This piques the potential reader's curiosity. 
  
  
• Look for it inside the novel. Often you'll find a line of dialogue or a phrase that fits perfectly
  
  
• Get inspiration from the automatic book title generator at the Reedsy site. Here are a few examples it came up with for different genres:
• Crime: Outrun the Shadow
• Fantasy: Warrior's Legacy
• Mystery: Case of the Winged Monkey
• Romance: Midnight Bride
• Sci-fi: Apex Colony
• General: The Ruins of Time
  
• Check to make sure the title isn't already taken. There's no copyright on titles, but if you give your book the same name as one that already exists, the author could sue you for trying to get people to buy your book thinking it was theirs. If the other book is out of print or not popular this is less of an issue.
  
  Side story: I wrote a marketing book called "Do Something Different" and got an outraged letter from someone who'd written a (very bad, very obscure) novel with that title. They wrote me nasty emails and gave my book a terrible Amazon review (which I had removed). I tried to explain that my book was non-fiction and therefore wasn't likely to be mistaken for theirs, but logic wasn't their strong point. 
  
  
• Try the title out on friends who are fans of your genre. Put it in a list with the titles of other books in that genre and ask your friends which of the titles they find intriguing (don't tell them which one is yours). To get more input, ask a blogger who covers your genre whether they'd be willing to ask their readers to do the same. You can also do this if you have a couple of titles you really like and don't know which one to choose.

An easier way to write your autobiography

Do you want to write an autobiography but you're not sure your life has been eventful enough, or that you want to dedicate the time it would take?

Preparing a course on making short films gave me an idea for how you can tell your story in a different way. A short film typically is about one moment or incident in the life of the protagonist--a moment that changes something. What if you use that as the guiding idea of writing your memoirs?

For instance, last year I wrote a short film that was shot by my friend Kenny Luper about the moment a daughter realizes that her father is starting to suffer from dementia. 

We also shot a black comedy short film about the moment--at a memorial service--that a group of people realize that none of them actually liked the deceased.

And we shot one about the moment a man's relationship with his Alexa-type device changes.

To write your story, instead of the conventional format of starting with your birth and covering your entire life, you could pick out half a dozen or more of the most important turning points in your life.

These could include:

• a major event (for better or worse) in your relationship with your parents
  
  
• a moment or event that made you decide what you wanted to pursue as a career
  
  
• meeting your spouse or partner
  
  
• a key act of friendship
  
  
• what you were doing during a dramatic moment in history
   
• how a particular book or movie influenced your life
  
  
• an incident that made you proud of yourself
  
  
• a moment or action you regret

Taken as a whole, these will give a good idea of who you are and what your life has been like--a great legacy for your children or grandchildren--and they're easy to write one at a time. Much less daunting than thinking you have to cover every year and event of your life. 

You can save this collection on a computer, but be sure to have a couple of print-outs, too--technology changes so fast that there's no guarantee the formats we're using today will still be around in ten or twenty years. Of course, you can also opt to have copies printed. Unless you plan to print a large run, print on demand may be the best way to go.

You could augment these accounts with photos or memorabilia. You could also opt to record it instead of writing it. 

If you decide to do this, let me know how you get on: [email protected].

Why not keep a journal of this extraordinary time?

Someday we'll look back on this extraordinary time, and perhaps the people who come after us may find it hard to believe...hard to believe we were so poorly prepared when we had ample warning that such a thing was likely sooner or later...hard to believe that our leaders dithered while people died...hard to believe that weeks before, the prime interest of much of the populace was the comings and goings of a forgotten family named Kardashian...

And they may wonder what it was like to live in this time, day-to-day.

Well, you're living through it, why not keep a journal of what's happening, how it affects your daily life, and your fears and hopes?

It could be a fascinating account for your children or grandchildren to read someday.

FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DANIEL DEFOE

In 1721, Defoe wrote "A Journal of the Plague Year," about the events of the Year of the Great Plague in London. I'm running some excerpts of it on my Facebook page (sample below) but you may want to read the whole thing. It's available free to read or download at Project Gutenberg.

How People Found Out

"We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumours and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I have lived to see practised since. But such things as these were gathered from the letters of merchants and others who corresponded abroad, and from them was handed about by word of mouth only; so that things did not spread instantly over the whole nation, as they do now. But it seems that the Government had a true account of it, and several councils were held about ways to prevent its coming over; but all was kept very private. Hence it was that this rumor died off again, and people began to forget it as a thing we were very little concerned in, and that we hoped was not true."

London Was Soon Changed

"The face of London was--now indeed strangely altered: I mean the whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and altogether; for as to the particular part called the city, or within the walls, that was not yet much infected. But in the whole the face of things, I say, was much altered; sorrow and sadness sat upon every face; and though some parts were not yet overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned; and, as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost danger."

Physicians Could Not Heal Themselves

"I shall not be supposed to lessen the authority or capacity of the physicians when I say that the violence of the distemper, when it came to its extremity, was like the fire the next year. The fire, which consumed what the plague could not touch, defied all the application of remedies; the fire-engines were broken, the buckets thrown away, and the power of man was baffled and brought to an end. So the Plague defied all medicines; the very physicians were seized with it, with their preservatives in their mouths; and men went about prescribing to others and telling them what to do till the tokens were upon them, and they dropped down dead, destroyed by that very enemy they directed others to oppose. This was the case of several physicians, even some of them the most eminent, and of several of the most skilful surgeons. Abundance of quacks too died, who had the folly to trust to their own medicines."

Yes, everything old is new again, but there is hope for a different ending.

[image Creative Commons courtesy of National Portrait Gallery)

Put our prejudices to use in your fiction

Our prejudices--our tendency to pre-judge people--can be pernicious in real life, but you can use it to your advantage when creating characters for your fiction.

A study at the University of Texas at Dallas found that our first impression of people is based, at least in part, on their body shape, according to a report by ScienceDaily.

Generally, heavier bodies were associated with laziness and carelessness. (I know--unfair, but I'm just reporting the results!)

Lighter bodies were associated with self-confidence and enthusiasm.

Bodies considered classically masculine (broad shoulders, smaller waist) and classically feminine (pear-shaped) were associated with being quarrelsome, extraverted, and irritable.

Bodies that were more rectangular were associated with trustworthiness, shyness, dependability, and warmth.

In fiction, you can choose to use these assumptions to help define your character--or to subvert the stereotypes by, for instance, creating a self-confident, enthusiastic character who also happens to be heavy, or a lazy, careless one who happens to be skinny.

I prefer the latter, not only because it may be a tiny step toward undoing this kind of pre-judgment but also because readers like being surprised and if they subscribe to the current stereotypes, this kind of reversal will surprise them.

 

 

 

 

How to avoid being scammed by people like this guy

Author and TV producer Lee Goldberg has a post on his blog about James Strauss, a "convicted con artist and fake TV writer."

Goldberg has received many emails with horror stories from people saying they've been conned or harassed by Strauss.

A recent one was from a young filmmaker asking whether he should do free work for Strauss in exchange for help breaking in to the business. Since Strauss has zero real Hollywood experience and has stiffed screenwriters, conference organizers, and many others, the answer is a loud NO.,

In 1998 Strauss pleaded guilty to defrauding a teachers' retirement fund out of $400,000. He was sentenced to 21 months. In addition he was accused of embezzling more than $20,000 from a Santa Fe Business while out on pre-release from the other case. 

Unfortunately, there are many like him out there, swindling aspiring writers and others. 

HOW TO AVOID BEING SCAMMED

If you are unsure about anybody offering you services like matching you with producers or publishers, public relations, promotion, editing, publishing help, etc. do your homework before you hand over money or agree to work for free! Here's what to do:

1: Google their name, the name of their company and anything else you know about them. Go past the first page of results. Smart crooks often set up fake websites full of endorsements for themselves, but under different names.

Many times they'll have a headline like, "Is X a scam?" and in the body of the site say, of course not! They use SEO to drive these sites to the top of Google results, pushing genuine sites down to page 2 or 3 or 4.

In the case of a bogus publisher, I Googled the names of the books they had supposedly published and none were listed on Amazon, nor did any of the alleged authors have websites.

2: If they feature endorsements, follow them up. Ask for complete names and contact details. If all you can get is quotes like, "X got me a big Hollywood deal!" -- Annette F., Detroit...well, that's not enough!

It's true that some people who give an endorsement don't like to give their full names and email addresses but the person in question should be able to give you at least a few who are willing to be contacted via email.

3: If the endorsements also feature photos, do a reverse image search.

First, go to http://images.google.com/ and click on the camera button and upload the image (you can usually click and drag it off the page on the person's website). Or you can drag and drop it into the search blank on the Google image search page.

Then also use TinEye, the simple instructions are at www.tineye.com. Both are free to use and sometimes an image source pops up on one but not on the other.

If you're dealing with a con artist, the image may turn out to have been sourced from a stock image site. That turned out to be the case with one subsidy publisher I looked into a couple of years ago.

4: Ask for specifics. For instance, if they say they can get you in the door at a studio, ask whom they deal with there--who is their contact?

That may be enough to scare them off.

If they're brazen they may say, "Spielberg, of course!" Don't be afraid to email that supposed contact, tell them what you've been told and ask if they have a relationship with the person making the claims.

5. Spread the word. If you find somebody is deceiving people, spread the word via your blog, Facebook, other social media and to relevant groups (like writing groups) and organizations.

Be sure to stick to the facts. Don't say, "X is a  con artist and fraudster!" Instead, say, "X offered to connect me with producer Y, yet when I got in touch with Y I was told they have never heard of X." Or, "The pictures of supposed satisfied clients on X's websites turn out to be stock photos purchased from iStock."

The reason for being careful to stick to the facts is that scam artists often like to threaten lawsuits. I had a few threatening letters from Tate Publishing, for instance, before they went bust and two of the principals were arrested. But because I'd stuck to the facts, there was nothing to sue me about.

Usually they're bluffing, but getting into even a bogus lawsuit is no fun. The facts should be damning enough. The reason I can characterize James Strauss as a con artist is that he's been convicted of embezzlement. Is he still conning people right now? I don't know but I'd sure avoid getting involved with him in any way, based on his past and the continuing complaints.

Let the buyer beware!

 

 

 

 

 

 

An improv principle that can improve your year

The number one thing I learned when I studied with improv group The Groundlings and also with Keith Johnstone when he visited the UK is:

"YES, and..."

It has applications far beyond the improv stage, so let me give you a quick explanation of what it means, starting with an example:

Let's say you're on stage and another actor (one new to improv) comes in. You decide he's your dad, so you say, "Hi, Dad!"

The other actor says, "I'm not your dad!" thinking that's funny and it'll lead to conflict--after all, comedy and drama are based on conflict, right? Well, the right kind of conflict.

But in this case, now you have to come up with a reason why you thought this person is your when he actually isn't...or you have to say something like, "Dad, your dementia is getting worse!" In which case, I'm pretty sure the other actor would say, "I don't have dementia!"  

As you can probably imagine, this scene isn't going anywhere interesting.

Starting a scene by denying (saying no) to what you are offered is a dead end.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ACTOR SAYS "YES, AND..."

Now imagine that the other actor accepts that you're his son or daughter. He says, "Hi, Brad/Janet, I just wanted to find out whether you've decided yet."

Now you accept (say yes to) the idea that you were about to make a decision and make one up, like "I have! I'm not going ahead with the wedding." 

If you're working with a group, that could be the cue for the bride or groom to come into the scene and say, "This is the happiest day of my life! I never thought I'd actually get married!"

Now you have some conflict that has potential to become a funny (or tragic) scene and the conflict is rooted in something real.

The "and" is the secret sauce.

If you just said, "I'm not marrying you!" and she said, "Yes, you are!" and you said, "No, I'm not!" etc. that doesn't go anywhere.

But if you say, "Darling, I'm not marrying you after all, but (this is the "and" additional material) I know someone who would be perfect for you!"

Rather than her screaming "No!" her more interesting response might be, "Oh...who?" (which is another form of "yes, and...").

OUR 'NO' MINDSET

For some reason, probably to do with evolution in some way, most of us seem to be primed to say 'no.' Of course we have to be able to do that, but often that leads to a dead end, whereas saying 'yes' and adding something often leads somewhere interesting.

ONE TIME 'YES, AND' PAID OFF IN LIFE

Some years ago I was in a class and chatted with a young woman who asked what I did. I told her I was a writer. She asked whether she could read something I'd written. 

Some people are very worried that if they show their scripts, the ideas or the scripts themselves might steal the material. You can say 'no,' and thereby guarantee your material will not be stolen, but you'll also guarantee that nothing good will come of showing the script, either.

In this case, I said, "Yes...and I'll bring in a copy next week." (These days I'd just email it to her, but this was in the dark ages.)

I gave her a copy of a spec comedy script I'd written. The next week she said she loved it and that her boss wanted to meet me.

I had no idea what kind of job she had, but it turned out that she worked for a producer. She read my script at her desk on her lunch hour and he heard her laughing. He asked her what was so funny. She told him it was a script by a fellow student and he asked to read it. He liked it, too, and wanted to meet me in case any comedy assignments came up at his company.

I wish I could say it led to a million-dollar assignment; it didn't but it was still useful to talk to him and find out about his company--this was in the days before I had an agent or any other way to get to people like him.

I like that story because it proves that you never know what seemingly random event might lead to something useful. 

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING 'NO' TO?

Naturally we have to prioritize because we can't do everything. But often saying yes and adding something doesn't take a lot of time.

It might be worth thinking about whether this year you'd like to try saying 'yes, and...' to more things and seeing what happens.

That could be in your career or your personal life.

DO YOU SAY 'YES, AND' OFTEN ENOUGH...TO YOURSELF?

It may be that the person you say no to most often is....yourself.

For instance, maybe you think, "Hmm, I wonder whether I could learn a new language this year." 

It's easy to say, no, I'm too old, or I don't have time, or I probably don't have a knack for languages, or, or, or... dead end!

What if you said, "Yes, and I'm going to try it out by..." using an app like Duolingo, or taking a sample evening class, or finding lessons online, etc.

If you don't like it, you can still say no, but at least you'll have given yourself a chance.

Can you think of something that it could be useful or fun to say 'yes, and' to? Feel free to share (or to keep it a secret).

 

 

On ambitious dreams...and when to get help to make them come true

"I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. In fact, there are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name." 

Larry Page, quoted in Re-Invent Yourself, by James Altucher

One of the stories from that book is about how Mick Ebeling saw a report about a young boy in the Sudan who had both arms blown off by a bomb. Ebeling, without any relevant experience, got together a bunch of experts who helped him figure out how to 3D-print prosthetics for the boy. 

START BEFORE YOU ASK FOR HELP

He asked Intel to sponsor this work, but not until he'd gathered the necessary information and started experimenting. Altucher writes:

"Too many people say, 'I have an idea. Now I need funding.'

Don't do that anymore. Stop it!

Say instead, 'I'm already doing this. Here are the 10 or 20 things I've done so far. Here are the results. Are you in?""

WHY THIS IS DIFFICULT

That's great advice but I know it can be difficult to follow. If you're like me, you'd like somebody to endorse your idea right away. Then we feel more confident going ahead. But if we're reluctant to take the plunge on our own idea, I guess it's no wonder other people will be even more so.

Something to work on...

 

Good news for UK ebook authors

The Bookseller reports that UK ebook  authors will soon be earning more money:

"Authors will be paid from a government fund that compensates authors for loaning their works for free from public libraries.

The catalyst for the change stems from a judgement in November in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It held the definition of lending by public libraries in European copyright law also includes remote electronic lending, thus removing the final barrier to its expansion.

The UK is one of the first countries to extend its library lending compensation scheme to remote e-lending, following amendments to the Digital Economy Bill."

The British Library reports that in the year to April 2016 there were 4 million loans of ebooks and almost one million audiobooks.

The amounts earned by individual authors under this program will be small but at least the principle has been established. 

The Real Reason ebooks aren't selling as well as they used to

You may have heard that print books are doing better than they were, compared to printed books. 

Hooray, maybe people really do prefer the feel of a book in their hand, and being able to turn pages physically.

That may be true, but there's another reason, probably the primary one.

Publishers' greed.

Here's an example: today I was looking for a book by Bertrand Russell. On Amazon.co.uk the paperback edition of his "History of Western Philosophy" costs £17.99. This book is 792 pages long, so the cost of printing and shipping it is considerable.

The ebook version would be considerably cheaper, right? Half that price, maybe?

Nope. It's £17.03. 

Consider that for a moment: it suggests that creating a digital product costs only 96 pence less than printing, storing, and shipping (from the printing works to the distribution points) a 792-page book. 

There are even times that an ebook costs MORE than a printed book. For instance today on Amazon Ruby Wax's "A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled" costs £3.99 for the printed book, but £4.99 for the ebook. OK, this is due to a promotion for the paperback on Amazon; at other sites, the prices of the paperback is £7.31 and £6.99, and the official price is £8.99. Even so, they lowered the price on the printed book but not on the ebook.

One more example, a current best-seller, "Tom Kerridge's Dopamine Diet." The ebook is £11.69 on Amazon; the hardcover version is £13.00.  If you know how much it costs to produce hardcover books, especially those with color pages, will know that the difference between that and a digital version is much greater.

In the self-publishing world, the difference between the digital and the print version (if the author bothers with a print version) more accurately reflects the difference in costs.

I think publishers are shooting themselves in the foot. Yes, if you want a book on the best-seller lists that is published by a traditional publisher, you have no choice; but especially for non-fiction books, people will turn more and more to self-published ebooks. (Many self-published authors are underpricing their books, but that's a topic for another article.) And that means traditional publishers' short-term gains are going to turn into long-term losses.

 

The great children's ebook con trick

I've seen a lot of promotion recently for courses that purport to show you how to make loads of money writing children's books and selling them on Amazon.

One of them shows you have to use clip art or public domain art for the illustrations.

Another suggests you hire people on Fiverr.com to do the illustrations for you for five dollars each. 

Then you put your book on Amazon and wait for the money to roll in.

Prepare for a long wait. 

Children's books represent the arena in which ebooks have made the smallest impact.

Kids like holding books or sitting in their parents' laps while being read to from a traditional book.

Also, if you're very skilled maybe you can put together an attractive book with public domain illustrations or Fiverr art, but it's not easy. 

The biggest question is how you get people to become aware of your book so that somebody buys it. Just putting it on Amazon is like throwing a message in a bottle into the ocean. 

If you want to write a kids' book for fun or maybe as a present for your grandchildren, by all means go ahead. You can easily set it up as a print-on-demand book. Once in a very great while, such a book could take off. 

Just don't count on it, and don't spend a lot of money on a course that pretends success is practically guaranteed. 

Authors, this could be a way to get paid to write your book

How has an author recently raised over $1 million to fund the publishing of a book that tells the stories of 100 inspiring real-life women?

The answer is Kickstarter, the crowdfunding site.

Better known for raising money for tech gadgets, Kickstarter has become a powerful presence in funding self-publishing and independent publishing in the US and the UK.

MANY BOOKS, BIG MONEY

As reported in an article by Richard Lea in The Guardian, in 2015 there were 1,973 successfully-funded publishing pitches, plus another 994 for comic ands and graphic novels. 

That added up to $32.5 million. To date in 2016 another $20 million has been raised for such projects.

There are other crowdfunding sites that raise money for publishing books, but they are dwarfed by Kickstarter. 

HOW IT WORKS

The people doing the pitch set a goal sum and a time limit within which they hope to raise it; if they fail, those who did pledge money are not charged and the project doesn't get any money. On some other sites, if a project raises only part of the goal, the people doing the pitch get that amount.

Kickstarter takes a 5% fee, and payment processing charges. If funding doesn't reach the goal, there are no fees.

THE SECRETS OF KICKSTARTER SUCCESS

Some successful projects have an author who already has a following he or she can tap. Without that, you have to work much harder.

It's vital that the pitch video is compelling and that the goodies on offer are attractive to the target audience. 

There is usually a range of rewards tied to various levels of pledges, from a thank you postcard if you pledge a very small amount, to one or more copies of the publication, to signed copies, to bonus posters, to having a character named after you, to spending a day with the author. 

Even when those elements are in place, the author or publisher has to drive people to the Kickstarter site. This requires a lot of marketing, usually via social media.

The Kickstarter site says, "The majority of initial funding usually comes from the fans and friends of each project. If they like it, they'll spread the word to their friends, and so on."

THE BENEFITS (BEYOND THE MONEY)

Of course, not every pitch gets funded. One of the benefits of using the site is that it gives you a good indication of whether there will be enough demand for your book. In many cases the books haven't been written yet when their Kickstarter campaign starts. If there is a lacklustre response, the author may decide not to go ahead with the project. 

For the projects that succeed, it's a great way to guarantee a good number of readers who, if they like the book, may help spread the word. Rebel Girls, the book about inspirational women, will start its life with 20,000 readers in place, from 71 countries. 

WANT TO CHECK IT OUT?

If you have a book that you think might be suitable for crowdfunding, check out this page on the Kickstarter site: https://www.kickstarter.com/learn?ref=nav.

For a more general overview, take a look at their FAQ page.

 

Could your blog vanish without a trace?

What if you woke up one morning to find that your blog had disappeared? 

Do you have it backed up? 

Are you sure?

I read about an artist to whom this happened and not only didn't he back up his blog, it was the only place he'd saved some of his work.

If you use WordPress, there are various plug-ins that allow you to save the blog's contents and download it to your computer or the cloud. You can search "WP back-up plug-ins" to find them.

There's also a quick and easy-to-use Mac app called SiteSucker. I have it load the back-up into my DropBox account for extra protection.

This blog is on the Typepad platform and wasn't attacked recently when all my WP sites became the target of hackers, but no site is totally safe. If you think your blog is being backed up automatically but you're not sure, it's worth checking. 

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