How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017 • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#111

Post by lutusp » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:16 PM UTC

Quote: "TL;DR: Scrivener, Vellum, KDP, Createspace"

Scrivener is US$40, Vellum is Mac-only and US$200, the other two are unnecessary/replaceable and IMHO should be a list of equivalent options -- once you have a manuscript, which can be created using any number of free tools.

Someone who imagines writing the Great American Novel, but who also expects to have to pay a premium for each step along the way, may not grasp the essence of novel writing -- how it fits into the big picture.

There are any number of free word processors able to organize a book project into chapters and sections. Self-publishing is also free or should be.

My favorite story about novel creation is that of Andy Weir and The Martian. Weir started the project as a series of blog posts, got very useful feedback from his readers, improved his content on that basis, and the project grew nearly on its own. By the time Weir wanted to talk to publishers, they already wanted to talk to him.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#112

Post by joeax » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:17 PM UTC

zhubert wrote: post #107

joeax wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a book out there called "Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass. The book was a tremendously help for me in deconstructing my plot and characters. I rewrote and even rearranged entire chapters. I had subplots that had no closure that I rewrote to provide an ending. I invite you to check out my novel's Amazon page and read some of the reviews. Even the negative reviews praise the story itself, while slam…

Awesome, thanks! For my major edit, I went through The Story Grid approach by Coyne. Very helpful and appealed to my techie brain.

Thanks, signed up. I used the info from Maass's novel to create a plot diagram for my story. In the end that's what we are - story engineers.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#113

Post by dlubarov » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:23 PM UTC

My advice would be to look at the pricing of CreateSpace versus Lightning Source/Spark before choosing one. And keep in mind that LS is the only one which lets you control the Ingram discount, down to 20%.

Here's the LS pricing guide: https://myaccount.lightningsource.com/documents/LSI/files/pr... and here's the CS pricing: https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/Royalties.jsp

For example, I sell a very short book via LS. The MSRP is $2.99, I set a 20% Ingram discount, and the print charge is only $1.56 (though the pricing guide now says $1.72; I think it's increasing soon). So I make $0.84 per book. With CreateSpace the lowest possible print charge is $2.15 per book, and given their fixed 40%/60% sales channel fees, it wouldn't be possible to sell the book for as low as $2.99.

LS isn't always cheaper though; you should do the calculation for your particular book size and page count.

Working with LS does make things a bit harder. You have to buy your own ISBNs, spend time waiting for certain manual processes (like for them to review your account application or a new book), and deal with their clunky website. But for me, it's worth the effort to be able to publish short books much more cheaply.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#114

Post by lutusp » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:24 PM UTC

zhubert wrote: post #110

cstross wrote: post #53

NOTE: Step 2: Write the Novel ... You know, the easy part. For those who have never written a novel, writer is being sarcastic here. The equivalent in terms of reference more familiar to the regulars on HN might well be: "Step 2: study for a CS degree, then decide which industry you intend to disrupt, learn how it works, and come up with a strategy. Oh, and write the killer app." This is just the framework for the bu…

Deeply sarcastic indeed! Writing Singular was probably the most emotionally trying and, at the same time, rewarding challenge I've tackled. It even feels weird to describe it that way, it's simply been a part of me for the last two years. I'm curious how that changes from the first book to the twenty-first?

> I'm curious how that changes from the first book to the twenty-first?

For your answer, compare "The Right Stuff" (1979) to "I am Charlotte Simmons" (2004), both by Tom Wolfe. The second book, apart from being unreadable, seems not to have been written by the same person.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#115

Post by robotkdick » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:27 PM UTC

The article addresses the finishing rites for self-publishing, but the note on tl;dr at the top should be expanded to say something like: writing a novel is the equivalent of starting a small company. It takes at least three months of focused effort to write something worthwhile for an experienced novelist, a year or ten for a novice.

Also, it might be helful to note tha the likelihood of making a living from writing is dependent on how fast an author can complete each novel.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#116

Post by lutusp » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:28 PM UTC

gozur88 wrote: post #82

The copy editor is a sore point with me. It's getting more and more common for me to run across jarring errors in novels. I don't mind so much if it's a digital-only 99 cent Kindle book, but if I spend six bucks on a book I don't expect to see duplicate sentences or incorrect word choice. "Tow the line", for example, or "then" when "than" would be correct.

> "Tow the line", for example, or "then" when "than" would be correct.

My favorite recent malapropism, seen more and more often and in increasingly exalted locales, is "reign it in". "Reign" is what a monarch does to a kingdom, "rein" is what a cowboy does to a horse.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#117

Post by sonicaa » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:41 PM UTC

marvindanig wrote: post #95

Shout out to @zhubert, cool article -- thanks for sharing it! This is how I'd write a novel in 2017 and do it for one web instead: https://blog.marvindanig.com/2016/03/17/how-to-write-a-super... Disclosure: I'm the developer/engineer.

This is very interesting. Does it use markdown as well or just plain markup/html in the manuscript?

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#118

Post by sireat » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

If you plan on translating or writing in another language beware of KDP!

Time for my annual rant on KDP and Amazon not caring about writers in non-English.

The list of supported languages is incredibly limited: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A9FDO0A3V0119

Finnish is allowed but Estonian is not... it is ridiculous. Latvian and Lithuanian is not allowed, Russian is not allowed etc etc.

It took a shaming campaign by the British press to get Welsch added.

This restriction is so silly when the book comes out perfectly on Createspace paper version.

It looks fine doing my own conversion for the Kindle but Amazon will not let me publish the books in unsupported languages.

I do editing and typesetting for a non-profit as a hobby/volunteer effort and end up publishing the paper books on Createspace but ebooks have to go through Kobo and other non Amazon venues.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#119

Post by munificent » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 9:13 PM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #71

Very nifty guide and honestly very needed in the DIY space I think. Mostly because I feel long-form print (specifically hard copy) is occupying a smaller and smaller market share year after year. There's definitely still demand - as in airport bookstores - but the ROI doesn't seem very appealing. My experience was through Smashwords and I was pleased with the platform. Never even recouped the $10 or so fee to get the…

> I feel long-form print (specifically hard copy) is occupying a smaller and smaller market share year after year.

Actually, after several years of decline, print sales have been bouncing back in the past couple of years:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bo...

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#120

Post by oddevan » Mon, Feb 27, 2017, 9:19 PM UTC

lutusp wrote: post #111

Quote: "TL;DR: Scrivener, Vellum, KDP, Createspace" Scrivener is US$40, Vellum is Mac-only and US$200, the other two are unnecessary/replaceable and IMHO should be a list of equivalent options -- once you have a manuscript, which can be created using any number of free tools. Someone who imagines writing the Great American Novel, but who also expects to have to pay a premium for each step along the way, may not grasp…

In terms of Scrivener, keep an eye on bundle deals and software discounters like StackSocial. I was able to get my copy for around half-price, and the organization and feature set provided for those $20 is well worth-it.

Now, to be fair, I could write the entire thing in Markdown and be happy. I don't need Scrivener. But for what it does and how well it does it, it's worth looking at.