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

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#151

Post by crpatino » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 5:02 AM UTC

rev_bird wrote: post #130

crpatino wrote: post #124

More or less off-topic question. How to not get sued by overzealous copyrights holders? I have an idea for an informal Chemistry 101 notebook. I might end up making comparissons between cartoon characters and periodic table elements: Hydrogen ~= Tinkerbell, Hellium ~= Master Yoda, Lithium ~= Philoctetes (from Hercules movie), etc. It is not reassuring that most references in that list are owned by Disney Co.

>How to not get sued by overzealous copyrights holders? I might be misunderstanding, but why is it unreasonable for the holder of a copyright to object to an author using their work without licensing it? This in particular seems like a pretty clear-cut example of actual infringement.

Because I would not be writing a new story about Tinkerbell, I would be trying to convey the idea that Hydrogen is "tiny and hot tempered", just like Tinkerbell, while Helium is "quite small, but not as tiny as Hydrogen, and very peaceful and self reliant"... just like Master Yoda.

Of course I could use GenericFairy#274, or MidgetZenMaster (my appologies to any Little People reading this, but I am not going to risk to use the word Dwarf and jump from Disney's frying pan into Tolkien's firestove), but that kind of defies to purpose of using visual imagery the kids already are familiar with.

Call me a sore looser, but I am not particularly happy with Disney having called dibs on the human herritage of the last 3,000 years and claim it was their own purpose. The only original work from old Walt was their horrible looking antropomorphic animals, everything else was taken from the public domain, repackaged, and ear marked as their own.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#152

Post by BorisMelnik » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 7:10 AM UTC

I would add to the start of this:

prerequisite: Mac computer

I've recently self-published using Windows / Linux and didn't have these tools available.

I will say that Createspace is an awesome company. I just think its brilliant I can upload a PDF, and in a few days I can buy 100 copies of it on Amazon, and have it shipped same day.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#153

Post by kriro » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 8:10 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #19

ilamont wrote: post #5

The author mentions getting a copy editor, but I would also advise hiring a development editor and/or getting feedback from beta readers. Quoting Stephen King (1): Show your piece to a number of people—ten, let us say. Listen carefully to what they tell you. Smile and nod a lot. Then review what was said very carefully. If your critics are all telling you the same thing about some facet of your story—a plot twist tha…

With this approach, your novel becomes an average of what the masses like to read, rather than what you wanted to say. Engineered for the masses, so to speak. Which, of course, could explain why King is so successful.

I think there's a dividing line between plot-driven and character-development driven works for lack of a better word. I think plot driven stuff should pretty much follow very common heuristics (the horror story, the heist, the serial killer novel...look at 20ish from each genre and you'll see very common structure) and only deviate ever so slightly. King follows this and an excellent book that goes into more detail on it is "The Story Grid" (teaches you to become your own editor, uses Silence of the Lambs as a running example)

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#154

Post by kriro » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 8:20 AM UTC

username223 wrote: post #59

austenallred wrote: post #9

I just finished my first book, and I went a little bit different of a route than the author here. I know this isn't very DIY, but it's probably worth knowing it's an option: I simply hired someone who works at a book publishing company to edit and typeset the book for me on the side. The person I hired does it for a living and is incredibly good at it. Let's just say it's not the most lucrative career choice, so I ha…

> we're ebook only so far Any insight on "piracy" rates? I recently published something print-only, and was considering offering a PDF (layout matters). It's a completely different "vertical," so the rest of your experience isn't too relevant.

A good take on this from a writer friend of mine: the people that "pirate" the book were likely never going to pay for it. But they could very well recommend it to people who might prefer buying it. The more it gets "pirated" the better as that means it's likely to be a decent book. I kind of agree with this and my gut says avid readers (which are always your #1 target due to word of mouth etc.) are generally fairly likely to pay for books.

I also once saw an author online who had a similar sentiment and offered a "did you download this book somewhere" button where you could donate a freely chosen amount of money to "ease your mind" and support future releases that worked rather well (to his own surprise). Trying to think of the name but can't I'll edit if it pops into my head.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#155

Post by aquarin » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 8:48 AM UTC

zhubert wrote: post #21

ilamont wrote: post #5

The author mentions getting a copy editor, but I would also advise hiring a development editor and/or getting feedback from beta readers. Quoting Stephen King (1): Show your piece to a number of people—ten, let us say. Listen carefully to what they tell you. Smile and nod a lot. Then review what was said very carefully. If your critics are all telling you the same thing about some facet of your story—a plot twist tha…

Howdy, author here. Completely agree on the early reader feedback. I went through two rounds of readers (alpha and beta) and it was immensely helpful in grinding down some of the rough edges of the book. A development editor would be fantastic as well, I honestly just didn't know where to find one!

Your second "Createspace" link is wrong.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#156

Post by cdubzzz » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 12:30 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #62

amelius wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With this approach, your novel becomes an average of what the masses like to read, rather than what you wanted to say. Engineered for the masses, so to speak. Which, of course, could explain why King is so successful.

>With this approach, your novel becomes an average of what the masses like to read, rather than what you wanted to say. Engineered for the masses, so to speak. Which, of course, could explain why King is so successful. If your goal is to make a lot of money selling, then "Of course!" However, I submit to you that King is not a massive success because he targets the average. He is a success because he writes well. His…

> "The job of a storyteller is to get out of the way!"

> This means no fancy literary devices that let the reader appreciate the choice of words - that alerts the reader to your presence, and distracts from the story. It also means strong settings and descriptions.

This is subjective, though. I, for example, love authors who alert me to their presence. This can powerfully reinforce or enhance the story. Vonnegut was a shining example of this.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#157

Post by crpatino » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 1:03 PM UTC

DrNuke wrote: post #36

Talking arty, literary novels are form more than content, so why self-publish a literary novel if form is strong enough?

Not sure what you meant, but I think an appropriate answer would be: for fun and profit.

It is a bit like saying, why go climbing the mount Everest if lots of people have already done so. Indeed, why trying to do stuff nobody else have done before, exclusively? If billions of people have already existed before yourselves, all the good stuff worth doing will have been done over and over again, and the only original stuff left will be JackAss(TM) material.

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#158

Post by sacado2 » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 1:38 PM UTC

njharman wrote: post #90

thedz wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, this is an artistic fallacy that needs to die. Responding and adjusting to feedback doesn't undermine the integrity of a work or weaken its authenticity. Cycles of feedback and iteration are common to all work in every medium. Obviously, you can take responding to feedback too far, but the idea of the artist-in-a-tower-birthing-a-fully-grown-work-whole is an inaccurate idea at best, and a damaging assumption at…

That depends entirely on whether you are writing for the audience or writing for yourself. Novels are clearly a medium for writing to an audience. Artists, esp amateur ones, think they can write for themselves and still create a novel. They should stick to their journals.

This. There's nothing wrong with writing for yourself, and only yourself. But, if you want readers, well, you have to somehow appeal to readers. They don't owe you anything.

Both approaches to writing are okay, but I think there's something wrong when an author says "oh, I'd like you to read this story, but I don't care about what you think".

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#159

Post by sacado2 » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 2:02 PM UTC

vgt wrote: post #75

My wife is an aspiring novelist (on her 9th draft of the novel) with an MFA in fiction and some experience working for a literary agent. Some perspective from that side: - 99% of all drafts sent to literary agents are objectively non-publishable. Simple lack of quality, lack of maturity, or other quantifiable factors. One or two drafts is not enough, even for experienced established novelists. Sadly, you can often te…

> One or two drafts is not enough, even for experienced established novelists.

cough Elmore Leonard cough

cough Robert Heinlein cough

> Not to mention that, once self-published, a book is highly unlikely to be re-published by a traditional publisher, especially for a first-time author.

That's a good thing. I think more writers should be in a "fire an forget" mode, i.e write a book, self-publish it, have readers or not, and move on to the next story. Rinse and repeat until you are able to write good stories. I think it's much better for self-esteem to be able to think "I already wrote 5 novels. Most are shit but, hey, it's getting better and better every time" than "argh, I have to write that first novel from scratch, for the fifth time. I'm fed up with it. I've been working on it for 10 years. I feel like I won't ever finish it. Maybe this writing thing is not for me".

Re: How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017

#160

Post by zhubert » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 3:13 PM UTC

aquarin wrote: post #155

zhubert wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Howdy, author here. Completely agree on the early reader feedback. I went through two rounds of readers (alpha and beta) and it was immensely helpful in grinding down some of the rough edges of the book. A development editor would be fantastic as well, I honestly just didn't know where to find one!

Your second "Createspace" link is wrong.

Fixed, thanks!